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COURT  LIFE  FROM  WITHIN 


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COURT   LIFE 
FROM   WITHIN 


BY 

H.  rv.  H. 

THE  INFANTA  EULALIA 
OF  SPAIN 


"The  time  has  come,"  the  Walrus  said, 

"To  talk  of  many  things, 
"Of  shoes  and  ships  and  sealing-wax, 

"Of  cabbages  and  kings." 


ILLUSTRATED 


NEW  YORK 

DODD,  MEAD  AND  COMPANY 

1915 


CorvRir.nT,  ton,  1014 
By  the  BUTTERICK   PUBLISHING  CO. 

Copyright,  1914 
By  the  century  CO. 

Copyright,  1915 
Bv  DODD.  MEAD  &   COMPANY 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I     The  Seeds  of  Revolt i 

II  Irksome  Duties  of  a  Princess    ....  22 

III  Pulling  the  Strings  of  Sovereignty   .      .  43 

IV  Love   and    Ennui 63 

V  My    Marriage — In    Mourning     ....  85 

VI     England  and   the   English 106 

VII     The  Kaiser  and  His  Court 134 

VIII     The   Tsar  and   His  People 157 

IX     The    Regal    Pose 181 

X  The  Scandinavian  Democracies  ....  190 

XI     The  Courts  of  Italy 213 

XII     Adventures   in   America 222 

XIII     After  the  War 242 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

H.  R.  H.     The  Infanta  Eulalia  of  Spain       .   Frontispiece 

Facing  Page 

The  King's  Study  in  Escurial 26 

Gardens  of  the  Alcazar,  Seville 38 

Royal    Palace,    Madrid 50 

The  Infanta  Eulalia 72 

Alfonso  XIII  of  Spain 96 

Dowager  Queen  Alexandra  of  England,  Queen  Maud 
of  Norway  and  Prince  Olaf,  Crown  Prince  of 
Norway 108 

King  George  V,  the  Late  King  Edward  VII  and  the 

Prince  of  Wales 120 

Infanta   Eulalia  on  Horseback 138 

German   Emperor   in   Austrian    Uniform    ....    148 

Nicholas  II  and  the  Heir  of  Russia 164 

King  Albert  of  Belgium 186 

King  Haakon  of  Norway 198 

Infanta  Eulalia  at  Window  of  Her  Apartments  .      .218 


INTRODUCTION 

I  HAVE  endeavoured  in  these  pages  to  present  a  true 
picture  of  Court  life.  It  is  a  life  hedged  about  by 
many  restrictions;  to  me  a  great  deal  of  it  all  was 
empty  and  meaningless. 

I  say  nothing  of  those  who  are  actively  engaged 
in  the  duties  of  rulership;  but  to  the  other  members 
of  Royal  families,  life  is  little  more  than  a  round  of 
useless  ceremonies,  from  which  a  mind  with  any 
pretence  to  independence  flies  in  relief — does  op- 
portunity offer.  I  have  left  behind  me  the  life  of 
Courts  and  palaces.  But  for  many  years,  in  my 
own  youth,  and  while  my  sons  were  growing  up  into 
manhood,  I  fulfilled  my  part  as  a  Princess  of  Spain, 
after  my  marriage  visiting  practically  all  the  Courts 
of  Europe.  I  have  written  here  of  these  visits  and 
of  my  impressions  of  the  rulers  of  Europe,  and, 
while  I  hope  there  is  much  in  this  book  of  kindliness 
and  sympathy,  yet  I  have  considered  truth  to  be  the 
first  essential  in  these  recollections. 

I  am  democratic  in  my  sympathies,  and  consider 
the  day  has  gone  by  when  Royalty  should  live  be- 


INTRODUCTION 

hind  closed  blinds.  The  world,  as  I  see  it,  is  peo- 
pled by  one  big  family.  We  are  all  brothers  and 
sisters;  let  us  know  one  another  better. 

Paris,  1915. 


COURT  LIFE  FROM  WITHIN 


CHAPTER  I 

THE  SEEDS  OF  REVOLT 

"The  time  has  come,"  the  Walrus  said, 
"To  talk  of  many  things, 
Of  shoes  and  ships  and  sealing-wax. 
Of  cabbages  and  Kings." 

Alice  in  Wonderland. 

Once,  when  I  was  making  an  official  visit  to  the 
South  of  Spain  with  my  brother  (who  was  then 
King),  we  were  told  of  a  gentleman  of  the  Province 
of  Sevilla  who  had  had  a  talking  parrot  sent  to  him 
from  South  America;  and  this  parrot  had  been 
taught  to  say  ''Viva  la  Rema!" — that  is,  "Long 
live  the  Queen  I"  But  soon  after  its  arrival  in 
Sevilla  there  was  a  revolution,  and  Spain  became  a 
republic;  and  it  was  not  at  all  comfortable  for  the 
gentleman  to  have  a  parrot  screaming  "Long  live  the 
Queen  I"  So  he  shut  it  up  in  a  room  in  his 
house  and  set  himself  to  teach  it  to  cry  "Viva 
la  Republkar — "Long  live  the  Republic  I"  It 
was  a  very  intelligent  parrot,  and  he  easily  taught 
it  to  say  "Viva  la  Re  public  a  T' ;  but  it  had  a  tena- 

1 


COURT  LIFE  FROM  WITHIN 

cious  memory,  and  it  took  him  a  long  time  before 
he  could  be  sure  that  it  would  always  say  "Vrua  la 
Rcpublicar  and  never  forget  its  change  of  politics 
and  cry  out,  inopportunely,  in  a  voice  to  be  heard 
by  the  neighbours,  "Vrua  la  Rcwa!"  Then  there 
was  another  revolution,  and  Spain  became  a  mon- 
archy again,  and  every  one  shouted  "Viva  cl  RcyJ" 
— "Long  live  the  King  I"  And  the  gentleman 
carried  his  parrot  back  to  the  closed  room,  and  after 
many  days  spent  in  trying  to  teach  it  to  cry  "Viva  el 
Key  J"  he  wrung  its  neck. 

It  was  a  very  valuable  parrot,  and  most  intelli- 
gent, but  it  was  not  sufficiently  facile  to  take  a 
speaking  part  in  Spanish  politics  in  those  days. 

I  have  remembered  this  sad  story  of  the  parrot 
because  the  events  of  its  life  were  so  important  to 
my  own.  The  Queen  whom  it  first  supported  was 
my  mother,  Isabella  II.  The  King  on  whose  ac- 
count it  lost  its  life  was  my  brother,  Alfonso  XII. 
And  the  Republic  (which  lasted  from  1868  to  1874) 
was  the  one  that  made  it  possible  for  me  to  escape, 
at  least  mentally  and  spiritually,  from  the  prison — 
very  gilded,  very  luxurious,  but  more  guarded  than 
a  Bastille — in  which  Royalty  is  compelled  to  live. 

2 


THE  SEEDS  OF  REVOLT 

Such  an  escape,  I  think,  is  more  difficult  than  any 
of  Baron  Trenck's.  It  is  one  that  leaves,  as  you 
might  say,  the  impediment  of  fetters  on  the  mind, 
even  when  the  body  has  gone  free.  And  I  have 
long  been  curious  to  consider  what  it  was  in  me  that 
made  me  struggle  out  of  this  splendid  confinement, 
in  which  one  is  so  envied  and  so  many  are  so  content. 
When  the  revolution  of  '68  first  disturbed  my 
life — and  the  parrot's — I  was  too  young  to  know  it. 
The  intelligence  was  still  unformed,  the  body  in- 
fantile. But  both  the  body  and  the  mind  had  been 
born  of  a  race  so  old  and  in  traditions  so  established 
that  it  would  seem  no  revolution  could  affect  them. 
For  many  hundreds  of  years  a  few  families  of  hu- 
man beings  had  been  inheriting  the  thrones  of  Eu- 
rope, generation  after  generation,  as  families  inherit 
property,  from  parents  to  children,  by  the  consent 
of  society  and  under  the  protection  of  law.  They 
were  by  birth  "Royal,"  as  persons  may  be,  in  democ- 
racies, by  birth  wealthy.  And  they  were  born  to 
rule  as  unquestionably  as  the  children  of  the  poor 
to-day  are  born  to  poverty.  They  were  spoken  of  as 
"Blood  Royal,"  as  if  they  were  of  special  flesh,  and 
they  intermarried  only  with  Blood  Royal,  because 

3 


COURT  LIFE  FROM  WITHIN 

the  people  whom  they  governed  demanded  children 
of  this  special  flesh  to  sit  on  the  thrones  of  their 
countries.  A  king  here  or  a  queen  there  might  lose 
a  crown  by  bad  management,  or  misfortune,  or  the 
ill-will  of  subjects,  as  a  man  might  lose  an  inherited 
estate  by  similar  causes;  but  he  could  not  lose  his 
place  among  the  families  of  Royalty  (with  whom 
he  and  his  children  had  intermarried)  nor  the 
honours  of  Courts  and  the  respect  of  peoples  who 
still  obeyed  members  of  the  ruling  families  into 
which  he  had  been  born.  So,  since  I  had  been  born 
into  one  of  these  families — the  Bourbon — die  essen- 
tials of  my  life  were  as  little  changed  by  the  revolu- 
tion of  '68  as  the  parrot's  were.  We  both  remained 
in  our  cages. 

My  mother,  leaving  Spain,  came  to  Paris,  to  live 
in  the  Palais  de  Castile  with  her  children,  a  Queen  in 
exile,  but  still  a  Queen;  Napoleon  III.  extended  the 
hospitality  of  the  nation  to  her;  and  she  continued 
to  move  among  ceremonies  and  Court  functions  after 
the  manner  royal. 

Of  all  this  I  recall  almost  nothing.  I  have  a 
vague  memory  of  Napoleon  III.  making  us  a  visit, 
and  I   remember  that  the  young  Prince  Napoleon 

4 


THE  SEEDS  OF  REVOLT 

came  to  play  with  my  brother  and  my  sisters,  who 
were  older  than  I.  I  can  recall  our  flight  from 
Paris,  when  it  was  about  to  be  besieged  by  the  Prus- 
sians, for  I  was  ill  with  measles  and  I  was  carried 
downstairs  wrapped  in  a  blanket,  and  I  saw,  some- 
where on  our  journey  to  Normandy,  German  sol- 
diers with  helmets  as  our  carriage  passed  them.  But 
these  are  recollections  of  the  eyes  alone;  they  mean 
nothing. 

My  first  clear  consciousness  of  myself  I  cannot 
place.  It  pictures  me  in  rebellion  against  wearing 
the  earrings  for  which  my  ears  had  been  pierced 
soon  after  my  birth,  so  that  I  might  be  decorated 
with  the  jewels  that  were  part  of  the  regalia  in  which 
a  Princess  of  Spain  was  expected  to  appear,  even  as 
an  infant.  I  do  not  know  why  I  rebelled — unless 
it  was  because  the  earrings  interfered  with  the  bodily 
activity  that  was  irrepressible  in  me.  I  was  very 
healthy,  very  strong.  I  wished  to  play  outdoors, 
where  I  could  run;  I  chafed  at  the  restraint  of  our 
formal  living;  and  I  think  it  was  this  revolt  of  the 
body  that  became  a  revolt  of  the  mind  as  soon  as  I 
developed  a  mind. 

Conceive  that  we  children  had  no  playroom  in  the 

5 


COURT  LIFE  FROM  WITHIN 

Palais.  We  had  to  amuse  ourselves  in  a  decorous 
sitting-room,  quietly.  And  we  were  never  allowed  to 
be  alone.  W^e  were  always  under  the  eyes  of  some 
Spanish  lady-in-waiting  who  guarded  and  repressed 
us.  W^hen  we  were  taken  for  a  walk  in  the  Bois, 
we  were  accompanied  by  ladies  who  prevented  us 
from  playing  with  the  children  we  met.  At  home 
some  one  always  sat  and  observed  what  we  were 
doing.  At  night  some  one  watched  and  slept  in 
the  bedroom  with  us.  Whatever  we  did  there  were 
eyes  on  us.  It  is  true  that  until  after  I  was  mar- 
ried I  was  scarcely  left  alone  for  a  moment  to  sit 
by  myself  in  a  room.  That  seems  to  me  very 
sad. 

I  am  sad,  too,  when  I  remember  this:  there  was 
a  courtyard  in  the  Palais  that  had  in  it  a  stone  pool 
of  water  a  little  larger  than  a  round  tub;  and  it  was 
an  escapade  for  me  to  get  down  into  the  court  and 
play  in  that  pool.  In  summer  I  got  fish  and  put 
them  in  it,  and  pretended  that  I  was  fishing.  In 
winter  I  skated  on  it,  although  I  could  scarcely  make 
two  strokes  without  bumping  into  its  sides.  There 
was  not  a  child  in  Paris  so  poor  that  he  would  not 
have  laughed  at  such  a  playground;  but  to  me  it  was 

6 


THE  SEEDS  OF  REVOLT 

liberty.  One's  childhood,  at  least,  might  be  more 
free  than  that. 

Not  that  my  childhood  was  pathetic.  On  the 
contrary,  I  was  very  robust,  and  instead  of  succumb- 
ing to  repression  I  reacted  against  it.  All  my  earli- 
est recollections  find  me  engaged  in  an  incessant 
struggle  for  merely  physical  freedom  and  the  en- 
joyment of  sunlight  and  open  air.  I  would  not  sit 
and  play  with  dolls.  I  could  not  be  entertained  with 
the  Spanish  stories  of  witches  that  correspond  to  the 
fairy-tales  of  the  North.  I  was  not  an  imaginative 
child,  and  I  did  not  care  for  pets.  I  had  found  a 
boy  in  the  Palais — the  son  of  one  of  the  maids  of  a 
lady-in-waiting — and  I  ran  away,  whenever  I  could, 
to  romp  in  the  court  with  him.  When  my  brother 
was  home  from  school,  he  was  my  playmate,  al- 
though he  was  seven  years  older  than  I.  I  liked  him 
because  I  could  fight  with  him — real  fisticuffs — and 
be  rough.  We  played  a  sort  of  football  in  the  court 
together,  and  my  mother  used  to  say  that  she  had 
two  sons. 

Once  when  we  were  at  Houlgate,  in  Normandy — 
where  we  had  a  summer  villa  by  the  seashore — I  de- 
cided to  run  away  from  home  because  I  had  been 

7 


« 


COURT  LIFE  FROM  WITHIN 

prevented  from  playing  with  children  on  the  beach. 
After  dark,  when  no  one  could  see  me,  I  set  out,  with- 
out knowing  where  I  should  go,  all  alone,  deter- 
mined never  to  come  back.  I  had  no  plan.  I  did 
not  even  imderstand  that  food  and  lodgings  had  to 
be  paid  for  and  worked  for  in  the  world.  I  walked 
along  the  country  road  in  the  dark,  quite  happy  be- 
cause I  was  walking,  but  puzzled  because  when  I 
began  to  tire  I  did  not  know  where  to  stop.  So  when 
I  came  to  the  farm  of  an  old  woman  from  whom 
we  had  bought  apples,  I  turned  in,  naturally,  to  get 
an  apple,  without  telling  her  that  I  had  run  away. 
I  was  overtaken  there.  The  lady-in-waiting — 
who  was  very  shrewd — as  soon  as  she  missed  me, 
found  out  from  my  sister  that  I  had  threatened  to 
run  away,  and  she  guessed  that  I  would  go  to  the 
apple-woman's  farm,  since  it  was  the  only  place  near 
by  where  I  had  ever  been.  They  brought  me  back 
home,  but  they  had  all  been  frightened,  and  I  began 
to  get  my  own  way.  For  example,  there  was  always 
a  maid  sleeping  in  our  room  at  night,  and  I  did  not 
wish  it — as  much,  perhaps,  because  she  snored  as  be- 
cause I  wanted  our  bedroom  for  ourselves.  When 
they  insisted  that  the  maid  must  be  there,  I  dragged 

8 


THE  SEEDS  OF  REVOLT 

my  bed  into  the  corridor  every  night,  until  they  gave 
me  a  room  to  myself  in  which  I  could  at  least  sleep 
without  being  guarded.  I  would  not  wear  tight 
clothes,  and  I  put  my  hands  down  inside  my  waist- 
band when  they  were  dressing  me,  so  that  they  could 
not  fasten  tight  things  on  me;  and  in  this  way  I 
avoided  many  tiresome  affairs  of  ceremony,  which  I 
disliked. 

These  are  very  trivial  matters  to  recall,  but  con- 
sider that  it  is  one  of  the  chief  pleasures  of  most 
royal  persons  to  dress  themselves  in  costume  and  play 
the  parts  of  resplendent  figure-heads  that  have  never 
been  allowed  to  think,  or  see,  or  know  anything  for 
themselves.  The  small  restraints  against  which  a 
healthy  body  made  me  struggle  in  infancy  were  the 
attempted  beginnings  of  those  impassable  walls  of 
isolation  and  ignorance  and  inexperience  from 
which,  in  later  years,  I  should  never  have  escaped. 

When  my  sisters  and  I  were  sent  as  day-scholars 
to  the  convent  of  the  Sacre  Coeur,  my  real  escape  be- 
gan. We  wore  the  dark  blue  uniforms  of  the  school, 
as  all  the  girls  did,  and  we  were  treated  exactly  as 
the  others  were.  We  studied  in  the  common  class- 
rooms and  played  with  our  class-mates  at  the  recrea- 

9 


f^ 


COURT  LIFE  FROM  WITHIN 

tion  hour  in  the  convent  grounds.  How  can  I  tell 
how  eagerly  1  went  to  school  in  the  mornings  with 
the  governess  who  took  us  through  the  streets?  Or 
how  happily  tired  I  came  home  at  night  after  all  the 
study  and  play  and  little  incidents  of  the  class-room 
that  had  filled  the  day?  I  would  be  so  tired  that 
I  would  fall  asleep  at  the  formal  dinner  that  was 
served  for  my  mother  and  her  guests  of  honour  in 
the  evening;  and  the  servants  would  have  to  carry 
me  to  bed.  But  I  would  be  awake  next  morning 
very  early,  before  any  one  else  in  the  Palais,  in  haste 
to  be  off  again  to  school. 

If  we  had  remained  in  Spain  I  should  never  have 
been  allowed  such  freedom.  They  would  have 
brought  tutors  and  governesses  to  teach  us  in  the 
palace.  I  should  never  have  been  allowed  school 
companions  like  those  we  had  in  Paris.  It  was  for 
this  that  I  have  to  thank  the  revolution. 

I  have  one  recollection  of  these  days  that  is  quaint. 
My  sister  had  come  to  school  wearing  earrings ;  and 
a  nun,  telling  her  that  earrings  were  forbidden  in  the 
convent,  attempted  to  take  them  off.  In  freeing  one 
she  tore  my  sister's  ear  accidentally,  so  that  it  bled, 
and  I  was  very  angry  and  I  wanted  to  strike  the  nun. 

lO 


THE  SEEDS  OF  REVOLT 

When  we  spoke  of  this  at  home  to  a  lady-in-waiting, 
she  reproved  me,  saying  that  it  would  be  "a 
double  sin"  to  strike  a  nun.  I  replied  that  I  would 
not  strike  any  one  except  to  give  back  as  good  as  I 
got.  "Well,"  she  said,  "you  will  never  have  to 
strike  any  one,  for  no  one  can  strike  you."  "Why 
not*?"  She  answered,  because  I  was  "a  royalty." 
"Then,"  I  said  to  myself,  "as  long  as  I  live  I  shall 
never  have  a  good  fight !"  And  this  made  me  so  sad 
that  I  remember  it  yet,  with  a  sort  of  sinking,  as 
one  remembers  something  irreparable  that  made  a 
great  difference  to  one's  outlook  on  life. 

My  mind,  by  this  time,  had  become  as  active  as 
my  body,  and  I  was  very  curious  and  full  of  ques- 
tions. The  Spanish  ladies-in-waiting  who  formed 
our  household  were  quite  ignorant.  Many  of  them 
could  not  read  or  write,  and  they  could  teach  us 
nothing  but  old  wives'  tales  and  silly  superstitions. 
I  had  learned  to  read  very  young  but  I  could  not  get 
books  of  the  sort  I  needed.  Outside  of  our  school- 
books  we  had  little  but  "The  Lives  of  the  Saints," 
which  was  read  to  us  every  day — the  life  of  the 
saint  on  the  day  dedicated  to  that  saint — as  the 
Bible  is  read  in  pious  families  of  Protestants.     I  re- 

11 


COURT  LIFE  FROM  WITHIN 

member  that  I  had  ''Robinson  Crusoe"  in  French, 
and  some  books  of  Jules  Verne,  that  were  welcome 
because  they  told  of  travels  and  adventures  in  the 
world  of  which  I  wished  to  know.  Otherwise  our 
books  were  all  religious;  and  I  had  found  that  I 
could  not  ask  questions  about  religion. 

For  instance,  a  nun  at  the  convent,  giving  us  re- 
ligious instruction  in  the  mysteries  of  the  creation, 
had  said  that  the  world  must  have  been  created  be- 
cause nothing  could  exist  without  a  creator;  and 
when  I  interrupted  her  to  ask,  childishly,  who,  then, 
had  created  the  Creator,  she  replied  that  it  was 
a  mystery  beyond  our  human  comprehension.  I 
asked  her  who  had  told  her  about  it,  and  she  was  very 
angry,  and  punished  me  by  making  me  copy  out 
pages  of  Racine's  poems  during  the  recreation  hour. 
This  method  of  teaching  religion  was  not  successful 
widi  me,  because — not  being  an  imaginative  child — 
I  was  sceptical  of  anything  that  could  be  explained 
to  me.  And,  being  contemptuous  of  the  ladies-in- 
waiting,  who  were  very  religious  in  an  ignorant  way, 
I  became  contemptuous  of  the  superstitions  which 
their  ignorance  had  added  to  their  faith. 

They  carried  about  with  them  great  numbers  of 

12 


THE  SEEDS  OF  REVOLT 

metal  images  of  saints,  blessed  medals,  and  relics  in 
little  lockets,  which  they  kissed  and  believed  in  as 
potent  against  all  sorts  of  diseases  and  misfortunes. 
They  had  large  pockets  for  the  purpose  under  their 
skirts;  and  my  sisters  and  I  had  the  same  kind  of 
pockets,  filled  with  the  same  things.  It  was  not 
long  before  I  had  emptied  mine  to  make  room  for 
the  cakes  which  I  used  to  smuggle  from  the  table  to 
eat  at  school,  where  our  food  was  rather  scanty. 
For  such  irreverences  as  this,  and  for  laughing  at  in- 
cidents in  the  lives  of  the  saints  which  amused  me 
when  they  were  read  to  us,  I  became  rather  a  scandal 
to  our  household,  and  they  would  say  to  me,  "You 
are  only  fit  for  America  I  You  ought  to  be  sent  to 
America  I" — since  America  was  regarded  as  a  bar- 
barous place  where  the  manners  were  bad.  And  so 
I  came  to  think  that  if  I  could  only  take  a  ship  and 
go  to  America  I  should  be  really  happy. 

The  nuns  were  very  sweet  and  gentle  with  me,  but 
I  would  have  liked  them  better  if  they  had  been 
rough.  There  was  something  in  me  that  distrusted 
suavity  and  desired  brusqueness.  I  was  not  sensi- 
tive about  harsh  contacts,  and  I  did  not  fear  or  re- 
sent  punishment.     Consequently,    I   not   only   im- 

13 


COl  Ur  LIFE  FROM  \MTHIN 

posed  myself  on  my  sisters,  who  were  less  robust 
than  I,  but  upon  my  teachers,  who  could  not  control 
my  spirit.  Mirrors  being  forbidden  in  the  convent, 
I  put  sheets  of  paper  behind  the  panes  of  glass  in 
the  doors,  and  dragged  the  girls  to  them  to  look  at 
themselves.  And  this  seemed  an  ingenious  perver- 
sity that  staggered  the  nuns. 

My  two  sisters  having  gone  through  their  prepara- 
tion for  First  Communion,  my  mother  took  them  to 
Rome  to  receive  the  sacrament  from  the  hands  of 
the  Pope.  She  took  me,  too;  and,  although  I  had 
not  been  prepared,  the  Pope  gave  me  communion  at 
the  same  time,  saying  that  I  was  a  "little  angel," 
because  I  had  fair  hair  and  blue  eyes.  When  I  re- 
turned to  the  convent  and  the  nuns  heard  that  I  had 
received  communion  without  the  preparation,  they 
were  outraged.  "Well,  then,"  I  said,  "isn't  your 
Pope  infallible?"  And  this  shocked  and  silenced 
them.  Altogether,  although  I  lost  many  recreation 
hours  by  having  to  do  "impositions"  as  punishment 
for  small  rebellions,  school  failed  to  subdue  me,  and 
I  kept  a  wilful  freedom  of  mind. 

I  had  heard  from  the  gossip  of  the  household  that 
my  mother — who  had  no  knowledge  of  the  value  of 


THE  SEEDS  OF  REVOLT 

money — was  spending  so  extravagantly  that  we 
should  soon  have  nothing  to  live  on.  And  this  de- 
lighted me.  I  used  to  picture  myself  working  hard 
to  earn — perhaps  by  teaching  languages  or  painting, 
of  which  I  was  very  fond — and  the  joy  of  the 
thought  was  intense.  My  eldest  sister  suffered 
from  headaches  in  school;  she  used  to  be  sent  often 
to  the  infirmary;  and  I  would  ask  permission  to  go 
up  to  her  and  sit  by  her  bedside,  and  tell  her  won- 
derful stories  of  my  dreams  for  our  future  when  we 
should  be  fighting  for  life. 

It  seemed  to  me  the  happiest,  the  most  exciting 
thing,  to  be  in  such  a  struggle,  among  people  who 
had  to  work  and  make  their  way,  always  busy  and 
interested  in  something,  and  never  shut  up  in  idle- 
ness to  be  bored.  No  Cinderella  ever  invented  for 
herself  stories  of  rescue  by  Prince  Charming  with 
more  longing  than  I  looked  forward  to  my  escape 
from  the  sort  of  life  with  which  Cinderella  was  re- 
warded.    And  I  still  think  that  I  was  wiser  than  she. 

My  grandmother.  Queen  Maria  Cristina — the 
widow  of  Ferdinand  VII.  of  Spain — was  living  in 
retirement  in  Normandy;  she  had  lost  her  throne  by 
marrying  a  Spanish  ofRcer  of  her  escort;  and  she 

15 


COURT  LIFE  FROM  WITHIN 

would  tell  nic  tliat  she  had  never  been  so  happy  in 
Courts — never  as  happy  as  since  she  had  been  exiled 
with  the  man  she  loved.  We  went  to  visit  her  very 
often  during  our  summers — a  very  clever  old  lady 
with  a  mind  of  her  own — and  I  liked  her  the  best  of 
all  my  relatives. 

Her  story  of  her  marriage  with  the  officer  (which 
she  told  me  herself)  made  a  deep  impression  on  me. 
She  had  been  on  a  journey  through  the  mountains 
near  Madrid,  and  the  altitude  had  given  her  a  bleed- 
ing at  the  nose.  The  ladies-in-waiting  had  given  her 
their  handkerchiefs,  and  she  had  used  all  her  own, 
but  the  bleeding  still  continued,  and  she  turned  to 
the  officer  of  her  escort  riding  beside  her  carriage  and 
asked  him  for  his  handkerchief.  vShe  did  not  know 
him;  she  had  never  spoken  to  him  before;  but  she 
was  in  such  distress  that  when  he  gave  her  his  hand- 
kerchief she  passed  all  the  others  to  him  without 
knowing  what  she  was  doing.  He  kissed  them  and 
put  them  in  his  breast.  Then  the  ladies  said  to 
themselves,  "Ah,  the  poor  officer  I  Now  he  will  be 
sent  away  to  Cuba  or  the  Philippines!"  And  they 
were,  sorry  for  him,  because  he  was  a  very  handsome 
man  and  very  well  liked. 

16 


THE  SEEDS  OF  REVOLT 

Next  morning  he  was  summoned  to  a  private 
audience  with  the  Queen,  and  the  ladies  said, 
"The  poor  man  I  Why  did  he  do  it"?  What  a  mis- 
take I"  But  when  he  came  away  from  the  audience 
he  was  not  depressed,  and  it  was  understood  that  the 
Queen  had  reprimanded  and  forgiven  him.  He  con- 
tinued in  attendance  on  her  as  an  officer  of  the  house- 
hold, and  it  was  not  suspected  until  long  afterwards 
that  they  had  been  secretly  married.  It  seems  in- 
credible, but  the  Queen  had  several  children  by  this 
marriage  without  it  being  known  even  to  Court  cir- 
cles. She  once  opened  Parliament  a  few  hours 
after  the  birth  of  a  child,  going  to  the  ceremony  in 
a  carriage,  very  weak,  but  determined  to  show  her- 
self to  the  people  because  a  rumour  of  the  birth  had 
been  circulated  by  her  enemies.  She  was  a  woman 
of  unconquerable  will.  When  the  truth  of  the  mar- 
riage could  no  longer  be  concealed,  and  the  people 
revolted,  she  left  Spain  with  her  husband,  and  was 
very  happy,  living  near  Havre  with  him  and  their 
children.  She  was  a  real  grandmother  to  me,  and 
my  visits  to  her  were  always  a  delight. 

My  father,  who  was  the  Infante  Francisco,  my 
mother's  first  cousin,  had  been  married  to  her  for 

17 


COURT  LIFE  FROM  WITHIN 

reasons  of  State ;  they  had  separated  after  the  revolu- 
tion; and  he  lived  near  us  in  Paris,  or  at  Epinay,  in 
an  establishment  of  his  own,  where  we  children  some- 
times went  to  see  him.  He  was  a  small,  grey  man, 
very  silent,  very  formal,  fond  of  books  and  solitude, 
and  contented  to  be  out  of  politics  and  affairs  of 
Courts.  There  had  been  no  sentiment  in  his  mar- 
riage to  my  mother,  and  there  was  none  in  his  rela- 
tions with  us  children.  My  mother,  too,  was  more 
a  queen  to  us  than  a  mother;  and,  as  a  girl,  I  knew 
nothing  of  the  parental  affections  of  a  home.  I 
think  that  may  have  been  partly  because  my  parents 
were  quite  old  when  I  was  born  to  them,  so  that  the 
years  separated  us.  But  also  it  is  one  of  the  pen- 
alties of  Royalty  that  their  life  cannot  be  intimate 
and  fond. 

My  great  devotion  was  for  my  brother,  whom 
I  was  like.  He  was  never  religious  in  a  superstitious 
way,  and  he  was  very  lively  and  athletic  and  fond 
of  sports,  so  that  we  played  congenially.  He  was  a 
clever  student,  and  helped  me  with  my  school  work. 
And  he  was  talkative  with  me,  and  told  me  about  his 
life  at  school,  as  I  chattered  to  him  about  mine.  But 
he  went  away  to  college  in  \'ienna  v/hen  I  was  very 

18 


THE  SEEDS  OF  REVOLT 

young,  and  then  to  a  military  college  in  England, 
and  I  saw  him  only  in  his  holidays. 

That,  then,  was  the  sort  of  childhood  one  had  in 
the  Palais  de  Castile.  I  saw  the  comings  and  goings 
of  politicians  and  personages  from  Spain  without 
paying  any  attention  to  them  and  without  knowing 
what  they  were  about;  for  I  spoke  French  and  but 
little  Spanish.  With  my  mother,  who  spoke  almost 
no  French,  we  talked  with  difficulty  in  a  mixture  of 
both  languages.  We  scarcely  saw  her  except  at  din- 
ner in  the  evening  among  her  foreign  guests,  or  on 
Sunday  when  we  went  to  chapel  in  the  Palais;  and 
we  children  made  our  own  lives  among  ourselves, 
apart  from  the  affairs  of  our  elders.  I  had  achieved 
a  certain  independence  of  mind,  although  no  inde- 
pendence of  action  was  possible  to  me.  I  had  es- 
caped the  narrowing  influences  of  our  life,  but  no 
broadening  influences  reached  me.  I  had  to  make 
my  own  mental  growth  without  the  aid  of  liberal 
books  or  the  culture  that  one  gets  from  informing 
conversation.  I  often  wonder  what  would  have  be- 
come of  me  if  another  revolution  had  not  returned 
us  to  Spain. 

I  was  about  eleven  years  of  age  when  it  happened. 

19 


COURT  LIFE  FROM  WITHIN 

And  it  came  like  a  bomb.  I  liad  nor  thought  of  it. 
I  was  expecting  that,  when  I  finished  school,  I 
should  have  a  life  like  other  girls;  and  I  was  be- 
wildered when  my  mother  summoned  us  to  her  room 
one  morning  and  told  us  that  my  brother  Alfonso 
had  been  proclaimed  King  of  Spain.  I  could  see 
from  her  manner  that  it  was  to  her  a  happy  event 
that  would  make  a  great  difference  to  us,  but  I  did 
not  realise  how  it  would  be.  It  was  as  if  some  one 
should  tell  a  little  girl  of  a  great  inheritance  that 
was  to  make  her  very  wealthy,  when  she  did  not 
understand  what  money  could  buy. 

The  first  signs  of  the  change  came  immediately 
from  the  nuns  at  the  convent,  who  treated  us  more 
formally  than  before.  And  we  learned  from  the 
girls  that  they  had  been  told  to  be  different  with  us, 
but,  of  course,  they  did  not  succeed.  They  came  to 
us  much  excited  and  curious  to  know  how  we  felt; 
and  I  could  see  that  they  were  disappointed  because 
we  did  not  feel  as  delighted  as  they  supposed.  Then 
a  great  many  people  began  to  come  to  the  Palais — 
Spanish  personages.  Republicans  who  had  never 
visited  us  before,  and  men  who,  I  learned,  had  been 
concerned  in  my  mother's  exile.     And  it  puzzled  me 

20 


THE  SEEDS  OF  REVOLT 

to  see  that  she  received  them  all  as  if  they  had  al- 
ways been  as  friendly  as  they  now  appeared. 

Like  most  children,  I  was  not  forgiving;  I  had 
not  learned  to  tolerate  the  disloyalties  to  which  life 
accustoms  one;  and  I  was  disgusted  by  the  cheerful 
falseness  of  the  self-interest  that  brought  these  people 
about  us.  I  began  to  look  cynically  at  the  show  of 
devoted  deference  that  makes  the  peculiar  atmos- 
phere of  a  Court.  And  then  I  forgot  everything 
in  the  announcement  that  we  were  to  join  my  brother 
in  Spain — my  dear  brother,  whom  I  thought  of  as  a 
playmate,  not  as  a  king.  I  had  missed  him  so  much. 
I  believed  that  I  should  always  be  happy  now,  since 
we  were  to  be  together. 


21 


CHAPTER  II 
IRKSOME  DUTIES  OF  A  PRINCESS 

It  is  in  life  as  it  is  in  travelling,  that  you  go  some- 
times with  such  unreflecting  interest  in  the  mere 
passing-by  of  the  incidents  of  Time  that  you  arrive 
unaware  of  your  destination,  and  look  back  with  dis- 
may on  the  change  and  the  distance.  It  was  so  I 
went  from  the  democracy  of  our  French  class-room  to 
the  estate  of  Royalty  in  Spain.  The  mere  journey 
itself  was  an  excitement;  and  it  was  at  once,  even  in 
France,  almost  a  Royal  progress,  because  of  the  num- 
ber of  Spanish  ladies  who  had  come  to  Paris  to  con- 
duct my  mother  to  the  Court,  to  say  nothing  of  the 
other  people  who  had  attached  themselves  to  our 
suite  for  various  reasons  of  their  own. 

At  the  seaport  of  San  Jean  de  Luz  a  Spanish  war- 
ship awaited  us,  with  the  sailors  on  the  yards,  the 
colours  flying,  and  the  cannon  firing  a  salute.  This 
seemed  to  me  very  joll},  antl  I  watched  with  curi- 
osity; but  I  must  have  been  a  little  withdrawn  from 
it  in  my  mind,  for  I  remember  noticing  with  amuse- 


IRKSOME  DUTIES  OF  A  PRINCESS 

ment  how  much  more  excited  for  us  my  governess 
was  by  the  crowds  and  the  spectacle.  It  is  usually 
the  looker-on  who  most  enjoys  these  pomps.  The 
Royalty  must  preserve  the  dignity  of  effigies  to  en- 
dure the  stares.  And  I  was  disappointed  because  I 
was  not  free  to  move  about  and  be  unconscious;  be- 
cause I  could  not  be  spoken  to  by  those  who  were  out- 
side the  circle  of  attendants;  because  the  personages 
who  were  allowed  to  greet  me  all  made  the  same  con- 
gratulations with  a  formality  that  wearied. 

Even  on  board  the  ship  I  could  not  go  about  and 
see  the  sailors.  I  had  to  remain  in  the  Royal  cabins, 
or  move  with  the  others  among  the  standing  salutes 
of  officers  who  could  not  speak  or  be  spoken  to.  We 
had  lost  the  freedom  of  private  persons;  we  had 
become  like  commanding  officers  in  a  world  governed 
by  the  army  regulations  of  Court  etiquette;  we  could 
not  go  anywhere  without  sending  word  ahead  so  that 
life  might  be  put  on  parade  for  us.  Our  meals  were 
ceremonies.  We  attended  a  very  long  and  formal 
Mass  that  was  celebrated  for  us  on  board.  And  I 
remember,  as  my  one  real  pleasure  on  the  ship,  that 
I  had  to  sleep  in  a  saloon  on  a  billiard-table,  where 
a  mattress  had  been  spread  for  me,  because  there 

23 


COURT  LIFE  FROM  WITHIN 

were  not  enough  Royal  cabins  to  accommodate  us 
all. 

But  as  soon  as  we  arrived  at  the  Spanish  port  of 
Santandar  I  forgot  everything  in  the  excitement  of 
a  reception  that  amounted  to  a  carnival.  With  a 
staff  of  officers  and  dignitaries  in  uniform,  and  a 
troop  of  cavalry  as  escort,  we  were  driven  in  an  open 
carriage,  drawn  by  four  horses,  through  streets  of 
which  I  could  not  see  the  fronts  of  the  houses — they 
were  so  covered  with  the  reds  and  yellows  of  flags 
and  bunting  that  were  dazzling  in  the  vivid  sunlight 
of  Spain.  There  were  crowds  on  the  pavement,  in 
the  windows,  on  the  balconies,  and  even  on  the  house- 
tops; and  they  pelted  us  gaily  with  flowers  tied  in 
nosegays  with  weighted  stems  so  that  they  might  be 
accurately  thrown.  They  threw  at  us  doves  with 
their  feet  tied  to  long  strings,  so  that  they  could  flut- 
ter but  not  escape.  We  warded  off  the  flowers  with 
our  parasols,  and  standing  up  in  the  carriage  I  caught 
at  the  doves,  while  my  mother,  who  feared  nothing  in 
the  world,  kept  crying  out,  in  a  nervous  terror,  that 
she  would  faint  if  one  of  the  birds  touched  her  with 
its  flutterings.  She  had  the  sort  of  horror  of  them 
flying  that  one  has  of  bats.     And  this  excited  me. 

24 


IRKSOME  DUTIES  OF  A  TRINCESS 

And  the  more  excited  I  became,  the  more  the  crowd 
laughed  and  cheered  and  pelted  us.  If  Spain  were 
going  to  be  all  like  that,  I  should  be  happy.  It 
seemed  impossible  that  these  could  be  the  same  peo- 
ple who  had  driven  my  mother  away  with  hisses. 
The  realisation  that  they  were  truly  the  same  made  it 
seem,  for  the  moment,  that  we  were  all  playing  a  part 
in  a  spectacle  without  sincerity.  The  thought  wor- 
ried me  as  it  passed. 

We  were  being  driven  to  the  cathedral  of  San- 
tander,  where  a  Mass  was  to  be  celebrated  and  the 
Te  Deum  sung  in  thanksgiving  for  our  return;  and 
there,  at  the  church  door,  the  bishop  in  his  robes 
waited  for  us  under  a  canopy  borne  on  poles  by  four 
young  priests — the  sort  of  canopy  that  he  walks 
under  in  processions  of  the  Corpus  Christie  when  he 
carries  the  Host  through  the  streets.  My  mother, 
my  two  sisters,  and  I  were  taken  under  this  canopy 
with  him,  as  if  we  were  something  sacred;  and  we 
were  solemnly  escorted,  by  priests  and  acolytes,  with 
music  and  singing  and  candles  and  incense,  up  the 
aisle  to  the  sanctuary,  where  four  throne-like  chairs 
had  been  prepared  for  us  before  the  altar.  As  I 
watched  the  priests   and   the  people,   I   wondered 

25 


COURT  LIFE  FROM  WITHIN 

whether  they  were  sincere  in  this  appearance  of  ac- 
cepting us  as  sanctified  by  some  sort  of  divine  right. 

From  the  cathedral  we  were  taken  to  an  official 
reception  at  the  Mairie,  and  then  to  the  Royal  train 
that  my  brother  had  sent  to  bring  us  to  Madrid;  and 
we  were  started  on  our  railroad  journey  with  cheer- 
ing and  congratulations,  in  great  state,  among  officers 
of  the  Court  and  personages  of  the  Government. 
It  was  a  journey  that  lasted  all  night,  and  the  train 
was  stopped  at  every  station  so  that  we  might  smile 
and  bow  to  the  crowd.  At  first  I  enjoyed  it;  it  was 
exciting.  But  when  it  grew  dark  and  I  was  tired  and 
wanted  to  sleep,  I  found  I  had  to  wake  up  to  be 
shown  to  the  people,  who  came  even  in  the  middle 
of  the  night  to  see  us  pass.  I  rebelled.  My  mother 
insisted.  "Very  well,"  I  said,  "I'll  make  silly  faces 
at  them,  and  they'll  think  you  have  an  idiot  for  a 
daughter."  My  mother  was  furious,  but  she  knew 
that  I  would  do  it,  so  she  left  me  alone,  and  I  slept. 

I  had  learned  that  we  were  not  going  direct  to 
Madrid,  but  to  the  palace  of  the  Escurial,  in  the 
mountains,  a  little  distance  from  the  capital.  It  was 
not  considered  wise  that  my  mother  should  go  to 
Madrid,  because  her  presence  there  might  encourage 

26 


< 

I— I 

H 

"A 


(X5 


h3 


IRKSOME  DUTIES  OF  A  PRINCESS 

the  formation  of  a  party  in  her  favour  as  a  rival  to 
her  son,  and  because  it  was  necessary  to  avoid  any 
appearance  that  the  King  was  taking  directions  from 
her  in  affairs  of  State — in  short,  because  the  men  who 
had  recalled  my  brother  were  willing  to  have  my 
mother  and  her  children  in  Spain,  but  were  not  will- 
ing to  have  her  rule  there.  This  fact,  for  me,  rather 
took  away  the  sweet  odour  of  sincerity  from  the  in- 
cense that  had  been  burned  for  us;  but  it  did  not 
seem  to  make  any  difference  to  my  mother,  who  ac- 
cepted such  considerations  as  matters  of  course. 

My  brother  met  our  train  at  a  station  some  dis- 
tance from  Madrid,  and  we  had  a  little  family  re- 
union that  was  very  happy.  He  was  so  glad  to  have 
us  and  we  to  have  him.  My  mother  insisted  that  he 
must  scold  me  for  threatening  to  make  faces  at  the 
people,  but  he  laughed  and  would  not.  He  joked 
and  chatted  gaily  with  me,  as  we  used  to  in  the  old 
school  days  that  seemed  already  so  far  away;  and  he 
promised  that  in  a  little  time  he  would  be  able  to 
have  us  with  him  in  Madrid,  where  we  should  be 
very  jolly  together. 

He  accompanied  us  to  the  Escurial,  which  we  ap- 
proached from  the  mountains,  so  that  we  looked 

27 


COURT  LIFE  FROM  WITHIN 

down  on  it.  It  was  built  in  a  square,  with  a  wing 
coming  out  of  one  side  like  a  handle.  "What  a 
funny  palace  I"  I  said.  "It  is  the  shape  of  a  frying- 
pan."  My  brother  told  me  that  this  was  intention- 
ally so;  that  Philip  II.  had  dedicated  the  palace  to 
St.  Lorenzo,  who  had  been  martyred  on  a  gridiron; 
and  the  shape  of  the  building  was  designed  to  remind 
the  kings  that  if  they  were  wicked  they  would  be 
fried  in  hell.  I  enjoyed  with  him  the  charming 
naivete  of  the  symbolism.  He  was  no  more  illiberal 
than  I  about  his  religion.  Indeed,  I  think  he  was  the 
only  King  of  Spain  who  did  not  constantly  go  to 
confession. 

Half  of  the  Escurial  was  a  monastery  and  a  school, 
where  the  monks  taught;  for  Philip  II.  had  been 
fanatically  religious,  and  he  had  lived  there  as 
"Brother  Philip,"  even  while  he  conducted  the  war 
in  the  Netherlands  and  sent  the  famous  Armada 
against  England.  The  tombs  of  the  Royal  family 
were  all  here — to  make  it  more  cheerful — and  new 
tombs  were  waiting  for  us,  the  daughters  of  Queen 
Isabella,  so  that  I  might  regard  my  own  sepulchre. 
I  regarded  it  with  amusement,  because  it  seemed  to 
me  a  childishness  to  make  a  daily  bugaboo  of  death. 

28 


IRKSOME  DUTIES  OF  A  PRINCESS 

It  appeared  that  we  were  not  put  in  our  tombs 
immediately  after  dying.  We  were  placed  first  in 
the  crypt,  in  a  chamber  called  the  pudridero^  until 
decay  had  reduced  our  bodies  to  bones;  and  my 
brother  whispered  to  me  that  in  the  pudridero  re- 
served for  Infantas  so  little  care  had  been  taken  dur- 
ing the  revolution  that  the  bones  had  been  mixed  up 
together,  and  he  had  had  to  have  them  sorted  for 
burial  as  best  he  could,  rather  haphazard.  The 
thought  of  the  poor  Infantas  in  their  fine  tombs, 
with  the  bones  of  each  in  the  tomb  of  another,  set 
us  laughing  again.  I  thought  that  the  Escurial  was 
a  very  pretentiously  funny  place,  and  I  enjoyed  the 
tour  of  it  with  my  brother  as  a  great  joke. 

Next  morning,  before  I  was  up,  an  important- 
looking  officer  in  a  gorgeous  uniform  of  red  and  gold 
came  bowing  with  dignity  into  my  bedroom,  and 
spoke  something  in  Spanish.  I  could  not  understand 
what  he  wanted,  and  I  tried  to  make  him  understand 
that  I  did  not  want  him.  He  kept  repeating  himself 
deferentially,  but  with  the  air  of  a  dignitary  who 
knew  his  rights,  until  I  ordered  him  out  of  the  room 
with  a  gesture  that  he  could  not  mistake.  He  went, 
much  offended,  and  I  hurried  to  my  mother's  room 

29 


COURT  LIFE  FROM  WITHIN 

to  a>k  luT  who  he  was.  She  explained  that  he  was 
an  important  Court  official;  that  his  sole  duty  in  life 
was  to  carry  slops  from  my  wash-table — which  was 
upholstered  in  red  and  gold  to  match  his  uniform; 
that  this  was  a  privilege  which  he  valued  highly,  and 
that  I  had  probably  hurt  him  very  much  by  denying 
him  the  right.  I  was  indignant  that  any  man  of 
intelligence  should  be  doing  anything  so  absurd. 
My  mother  did  not  sympathise;  it  was  an  affair  of 
Court  etiquette.  I  refused  to  have  a  man  coming 
to  my  room.  She  insisted  that  I  must.  "Very 
well,"  I  said,  "if  he  ever  comes  in  there  again,  I'll 
beat  him  with  something."  And  although  my 
mother  was  angry  with  me,  he  never  did  come  in 
again. 

This  proved  to  be  a  sample  of  much  of  the  formal- 
ity that  made  life  difficult  at  the  Escurial.  We  had 
not  only,  now,  the  ladies-in-waiting  to  be  with  us  al- 
ways; as  soon  as  we  came  out  of  our  bedrooms  in 
the  morning  we  had  ushers  also  to  precede  us  every- 
where; and  if  we  crossed  a  hall  a  guard  accompanied 
us  and  waited  at  the  door.  The  Escurial  is  one  of 
the  most  magTiificent  of  palaces,  with  huge  rooms  of 
state  as  high  as  chapels,  richly  furnished  and  hung 

30 


IRKSOME  DUTIES  OF  A  PRINCESS 

with  tapestries  and  paintings.  I  found  these  rooms 
excellent  to  skip  in,  since  all  the  furniture  was  ar- 
ranged along  the  walls,  as  in  ball-rooms;  but  I  had 
to  make  friends  first  with  the  ushers,  to  persuade 
them  to  stand  aside  and  let  me  play,  otherwise,  I 
suppose,  I  should  have  had  to  skip  in  a  procession, 
with  an  usher  marching  in  his  uniform  solemnly 
ahead  of  me  and  a  lady-in-waiting  behind  I 

I  had  no  studies  here  and  no  playmates;  my  sis- 
ters were  older  than  I,  and  they  did  not  like  my 
active  games.  I  soon  found  the  Escurial  depressing. 
It  was  chilly  in  the  mountains  after  sunset,  and  there 
was  no  way  of  heating  the  palace  in  those  days  except 
with  fireplaces,  that  might  as  well  have  been  burn- 
ing out  of  doors.  The  view  from  the  windows  was 
desolate,  for  there  were  no  trees,  and  the  hills  were 
bare.  I  saw  no  visitors  but  personages  speaking 
Spanish,  who  came  to  see  my  mother  formally ;  and 
to  these  we  children  were  shown  to  satisfy  curiosity. 
They  all  congratulated  us  on  being  back  in  the  land 
where  we  had  been  born.  I  wondered  why  they  ex- 
pected that  to  make  us  so  happy.  After  all,  I  did 
not  remember  being  born  there.  As  for  the  Escurial, 
it  was  picturesque,  no  doubt;  it  was  magnificent;  it 

31 


COURT  LIFE  FROM  WITHIN 

was  as  historic  as  a  public  museum;  and  if  I  had 
been  a  tourist,  sightseeing,  I  might  have  admired  it 
as  much  as  tourists  do  Versailles.  But  I  do  not 
think  that  even  a  tourist  would  be  happy  if  he  had 
to  live  permanently  imprisoned  in  the  magnificent 
discomforts  of  the  palace  of  Versailles — especially  if 
his  only  recreation  was  to  skip  in  the  Hall  of  Mir- 
rors under  the  eyes  of  a  uniformed  museum  guard. 

Then  there  came  to  us  a  formidable  relative,  a 
princess  to  whom  her  royalty  was  a  religion;  and  a 
new  trouble  began  for  me.  I  offended  her  uncon- 
sciously with  every  word — and,  when  I  was  not 
speaking,  with  every  action.  It  appeared  to  her  that 
I  had  not  at  all  the  manners  of  a  princess,  nor  the 
mind.  She  set  herself  to  instruct  and  counsel  me, 
severely. 

She  tried  to  impress  it  on  me  that,  with  my  brotlier 
on  the  Throne,  every  word  I  uttered  had  importance; 
that  it  would  be  weighed  and  studied  and  repeated. 
Therefore  I  must  not  express  opinions  of  any  sort 
about  public  affairs,  or  personages,  for  fear  I  should 
say  something  that  might  be  used  to  make  difficulties 
for  my  brother.  It  was  a  duty  that  we  owed  the 
Crown  to  have  no  opinions  at  all,  except  about  mat- 

32 


IRKSOME  DUTIES  OF  A  PRINCESS 

ters  that  could  have  no  public  bearing  or  affect  the 
popularity  of  the  King. 

Similarly,  we  could  have  no  special  friends,  for 
fear  of  arousing  jealousies  that  might  embarrass  the 
Throne;  and  in  order  to  avoid  even  the  appearance 
of  having  favourites,  we  must  not  show  any  special 
sympathy  or  antipathy  for  any  person.  We  must 
be  the  same  to  all,  and  unvarying  in  our  manner 
from  day  to  day,  so  as  to  avoid  comparisons.  It 
was  a  duty  that  we  owed  the  Crown.  We  must  per- 
form all  our  social  and  religious  duties  and  observe 
all  the  etiquettes  of  Court  life  to  the  same  end — 
that  no  act  of  ours,  either  of  omission  or  commission, 
should  make  difficulty  for  the  King.  We  must  not 
only  avoid  the  occasion  of  scandal,  but  we  must  ef- 
face ourselves  so  efficiently  that  even  the  most  inno- 
cent gossip  could  not  find  its  source  in  us.  It  was  a 
duty  that  we  owed  the  Crown.  I  must  not  say  that 
I  found  the  view  from  the  Escurial  desolate ;  it  might 
be  construed  into  an  offensive  criticism  of  the  coun- 
try. I  must  like  everything  and  everybody,  unless 
the  King  expressed  a  wish  to  the  contrary  in  a  par- 
ticular instance.  It  was  a  duty  that  we  owed  the 
Crown. 

33 


COURT  LIFE  FROM  WITHIN 

At  first  she  bewildered  me  with  the  sort  of  fright 
that  comes  on  a  child  confronted  by  a  dictatorial 
schoolmaster  and  a  new  lesson  to  learn.  She  talked 
and  talked,  and  I  did  not  understand  her.  Then  I 
began  to  think  her  absurd,  because  her  pomposity 
was  stupid,  and  her  self-importance  made  me  smile. 
When  she  told  me  that  every  word  I  uttered  would 
be  weighed  and  repeated,  I  thought  to  myself,  "No! 
People  can't  be  so  silly  as  that  I  Or  if  there  are  such 
people,  why  worry  about  them*?  It  isn't  worth  the 
thought."  And  the  idea  that  I  must  not  have  opin- 
ions or  friends  was  repulsive  to  me,  because  it  was  a 
restraint  of  spirit  that  would  cramp  me.  After  hear- 
ing it  all  from  her,  over  and  over,  again  and  again, 
I  decided  that  she  was  not  a  very  clever  person,  and 
that  she  had  exaggerated  trifles.  I  knew  that  my 
brother  would  not  expect  such  things  of  me,  and  I 
decided  to  pay  no  attention  to  her. 

But  the  difficulty  is  that,  no  matter  how  liberal- 
minded  a  King  may  be,  many  of  the  people  who  de- 
vote themselves  to  the  servilities  of  Court  life  are  in- 
evitably narrow;  and  though  my  brother  had  been 
recalled  to  the  tlirone  because  he  was  a  Liberal,  his 
Court  could  not  be  so.     My  sisters  and  I,  having 

34 


IRKSOME  DUTIES  OF  A  PRINCESS 

been  educated  in  France,  were  suspected  of  Republi- 
can tendencies  of  mind  that  would  be  as  offensive  as 
bad  table  manners  in  the  Court.  The  clerical  in- 
fluence, though  it  was  not  strong  with  my  brother, 
was  very  strong  with  my  mother,  and  the  ladies  and 
gentlemen-in-waiting,  and  the  nobility  in  general; 
and  I  suppose  it  was  evident  that  I  was  not  a  pattern 
of  young  devoutness.  I  spoke  Spanish  so  clumsily 
that  my  brother  had  laughed  at  it  and  advised  me 
that  it  would  be  unwise  for  me  to  attempt  to  speak 
it  to  visitors  until  I  was  more  proficient.  I  did  not 
know  what  was  going  on  about  me,  but  I  imagine  it 
was  for  such  reasons  as  these  that  it  was  decided  my 
mother  should  take  us  to  the  palace  of  the  Alcazar 
in  Sevilla,  where  we  could  learn  Spanish  and  be 
purged  of  foreign  habits  of  thought.  And  there, 
too,  my  mother  would  be  still  farther  away  from  in- 
fluencing the  politics  of  the  capital. 

So,  within  a  few  months,  we  left  the  Escurial  for 
the  Alcazar,  and  I  went  from  the  chilly  monotony  of 
a  Northern  Court  to  the  oppression  and  ennui  of  an 
Oriental  harem.  Even  yet,  if  the  sun  shines  too 
brightly  and  the  summer  day  is  hot,  I  am  overcome 
with  melancholy — as  a  Russian  who  has  been  in 

35 


COITRT  LIFE  FROM  WITHIN 

prison  in  Siberia  might  be  when  he  sees  the  snow 
fall.     Those  endless,  idle,  unhappy  days  I 

As  we  drove  to  the  palace  from  the  railway  station 
I  noticed  that  the  street  windows  of  the  houses  were 
all  barred.  Thieves,  then,  must  be  very  bold  in 
Sevilla?  I  was  told:  No;  the  bars  were  not  in  the 
windows  to  keep  burglars  out,  but  to  keep  the  young 
girls  in,  and  to  allow  them  to  speak  safely  with  their 
future  husbands,  who  came  courting  below  in  the 
streets.  How  picturesque  I  Since  I  had  never  been 
allowed  to  speak  to  a  man  alone,  even  through  a  grat- 
ing— unless  it  was  a  priest  in  a  confessional — I  did 
not  feel  sorry  for  the  young  women  of  Sevilla.  I 
did  not  understand  that  the  bars  were  symbolical.  I 
stared  at  the  flat-roofed  Southern  houses  and  the 
barbaric  colours  of  the  costumes,  and  the  crowds  that 
did  not  cheer  us  as  we  drove  by,  but  sang  in  chorus 
to  the  accompaniment  of  unseen  guitars,  and  uttered 
sudden  shrieks  with  sad,  impassive  faces,  like  Arabs, 
to  express  their  joy.  And  the  gates  of  the  Alcazar 
closed  on  us  without  any  ominous  echo  to  my  ears. 

The  Alcazar  is  a  Moorish  palace  of  great  beauty, 
with  walls  and  ceilings  all  covered  with  intricate 
patterns  of  carving  and  bright  colours,  so  that  it  was 

36 


IRKSOME  DUTIES  OF  A  PRINCESS 

like  coming  to  live  in  a  palace  of  the  Arabian  Nights. 
The  inner  courtyards  are  Oriental,  cooled  by  foun- 
tains. The  garden  around  the  palace  is  Oriental,  in 
tiny  squares  and  flower-beds,  with  short  paths,  and 
no  place  for  one  to  run.  And  around  the  garden 
the  high  wall  is  Oriental,  a  true  harem  wall,  over 
which  one  could  not  see.  In  all  the  rooms  of  the 
palace  there  is  not  one  door;  and  when  we  had  hang- 
ings put  up  in  the  Moorish  arches  of  our  bedroom 
doorways  the  servants  were  surprised.  They  did  not 
understand  the  desire  for  privacy.  Sentinels  and 
guards  were  on  duty  everywhere ;  a  man  even  walked 
all  night  under  my  bedroom  windows ;  and  whenever 
we  went  into  the  gardens  the  trumpets  were  sounded 
— Heaven  only  knows  why  I 

It  was  a  life  in  which  there  was  nothing  to  do, 
nothing  to  see — a  life  designed  for  Southern  women 
who  are  content  to  loll  about  on  cushions  and  grow 
fat.  We  were  not  expected  to  go  out  at  all,  except 
in  carriages,  with  an  escort,  down  staring  streets,  and, 
indeed,  it  would  have  been  impossible  to  walk 
through  the  crowds  that  gathered.  I  could  not  ride 
horseback  without  a  lady-in-waiting  to  go  with  me; 
and  all  the  ladies  were  too  fat  to  ride,  even  if  they 

37 


COURT  LIFE  FROM  WITHIN 

had  known  how.  The  best  exercise  I  could  get  in 
the  garden  was  to  jump  the  iiower-beds — to  the 
amazement  of  everybody — or  to  skip  up  and  down  in 
one  place  mechanically.  It  was  as  much  worse  than 
the  Escurial  as  the  Escurial  had  been  worse  than  the 
Palais  de  Castile;  and  when  it  came  home  to  me  that 
this,  now,  was  to  be  my  life  for  ever,  I  felt  that  I 
should  go  mad. 

Every  afternoon  my  mother  gave  audiences  to  the 
ladies  of  Sevilla;  but  what  good  was  that?  Even 
with  us  children  they  did  nothing  but  curtsy,  and 
kiss  the  hands,  and  look  at  us,  awed,  as  if  we  were 
not  human.  They  could  not  say  anything  to  us,  and 
we  did  not  know  what  to  say  to  them.  Generals 
came  to  salute  my  mother,  and  remained  for  dinner; 
and  every  day  one  officer  of  the  guard  had  luncheon 
with  us;  but  we  girls  were  not  allowed  to  speak  to 
men,  except  to  exchange  formal  words  of  greeting 
under  the  eyes  of  the  governess. 

One  day,  the  governess  being  absent,  I  got  into 
conversation  with  an  ofllcer  at  the  table,  innocently, 
when  lie  had  been  speaking  about  "the  bath  of  Maria 
Padilla"  in  our  garden.  It  was  a  large  stone  bath 
that  had  been  built  by  Pedro  the  Cruel  for  this  Maria 

38 


Gardens  of  the  Alcazar,  Seville 


IRKSOME  DUTIES  OF  A  PRINCESS 

Padilla  when  she  had  lived  at  the  Alcazar;  and  I 
had  longed  to  have  it  filled  with  water  so  that  I  might 
use  it.  The  officer  told  me  that  once,  after  Maria 
Padilla  had  bathed  there,  Pedro  the  Cruel,  in  a  jest, 
had  invited  a  courtier  to  drink  some  of  the  water  to 
show  his  devotion,  and  the  courtier  replied,  "I'm 
afraid  if  I  tried"  the  sauce,  I  might  get  a  taste  for  the 
partridge."  I  thought  this  very  clever  of  the  cour- 
tier, and  I  repeated  the  story  to  my  governess,  after 
dinner,  and  she  was  horrified.  It  was  the  last  oppor- 
tunity I  got  to  speak  with  the  officer. 

And  I  did  not  get  the  bath.  Indeed,  at  that  time 
it  was  difficult  to  get  a  bath  of  any  sort,  except  a 
sponge  bath,  piecemeal.  The  ladies-in-waiting  de- 
clared that  it  was  sinful  to  bathe ;  and  when  I  laughed 
at  that  they  argued  that  it  was  indelicate  to  take  off 
all  one's  clothing  at  once.  (I  imagine  that  their  an- 
tipathy to  bathing  must  have  come  from  the  feeling 
against  the  Moors,  who  had  so  long  been  the  con- 
querors in  Sevilla,  since  it  was  part  of  their  religion 
to  bathe.)  I  finally  got  my  way  by  persuading  a 
doctor  to  give  orders  that  I  must  have  cold  baths 
for  my  health. 

These,  then,  were  some  of  the  material  restrictions 

39 


COURT  LIFE  FROM  WITHIN 

of  our  liiV.  The  mental  restrictions  were  even  more 
hopeless.  There  were  no  books  to  be  had.  It  I 
wrote  a  letter,  it  had  to  be  read  by  the  lady-in- 
waiting  to  whom  I  gave  it  to  post.  We  had  an 
old  professor  to  give  us  lessons  in  Spanish,  and  we 
studied  painting  and  music,  and  acquired  the  orna- 
mental accomplishments  and  fundamental  ignorances 
of  young  ladies  who  are  not  expected  to  have  minds 
and  not  allowed  to  develop  any.  Religious  instruc- 
tion went  on  alwa)  s.  We  heard  Mass  in  the  palace 
every  day,  and  we  should  have  had  to  go  to  con- 
fession and  communion  every  day,  too,  if  I  had  not 
insisted  that  I  would  not  go  oftener  than  once  a 
month.  My  sisters  were  both  most  devout,  and  they 
did  not  sympathise  with  my  rebelliousness.  WTien 
I  complained  of  the  imprisonment  of  our  lives,  they 
counselled  me,  affectionately,  to  bow  to  the  will  of 
God  and  to  accept  with  pious  resignation  the  trials 
to  which  Providence  had  appointed  us.  I  should 
have  been  happier,  no  doubt,  if  I  could  have  done  so; 
but  Providence  had  also  appointed  for  me  a  tem- 
perament that  made  resignation  impossible,  and  I 
continued  to  obey  the  will  of  God  by  chafing  and 
complaining  and  struggling  to  escape. 

40 


IRKSOME  DUTIES  OF  A  PRINCESS 

With  the  arrival  of  March  came  a  new  horror  of 
heat;  and  as  the  summer  progressed  it  seemed  impos- 
sible to  live  through  each  new  day.  The  sun  was 
unendurable.  The  soldiers  on  guard  had  to  be 
changed  every  quarter  of  an  hour,  and  many  of  them 
were  taken  from  their  posts  fainting.  The  birds  fell 
dead  from  the  trees  in  the  garden.  The  air  was  full 
of  an  odour  of  melting  asphalt,  and  even  at  night 
the  pavements  would  be  so  hot  that  they  would  burn 
the  soles  of  the  shoes.  Indoors  the  sealing-wax 
would  melt  on  your  writing-desk.  And  the  mosqui- 
toes! To  study,  or  to  write,  we  had  to  sit  under 
mosquito  bars,  or  we  would  be  so  pestered  that  we 
could  not  work.  I  was  unable  to  eat.  I  lived  on 
lemon  and  water,  ill  with  the  heat  and  with  longing 
for  the  cool,  green  freedom  of  our  country  summers 
in  Normandy — with  the  grey-blue  skies  and  the  grey- 
green  fields,  and  the  shade  of  the  deep,  hedge- 
hidden  byways.  How  I  yearned  for  them  I  As  one 
yearns  for  the  comfort  of  health  in  the  semi-delirious 
miseries  of  fever  I  I  would  say  to  myself,  "Oh,  if 
Spain  would  only  have  another  revolution!" 

Then  one  of  my  sisters,  who  was  less  robust  than 
I,  became  seriously  prostrated.     They  were  afraid 

41 


COURT  LIFE  FROM  WITHIN 

th:it  I,  too,  might  collapse,  because  I  would  not  let 
them  give  me  food.  My  mother  had  quarrelled  with 
my  brother  about  some  political  differences,  and  she 
wished  to  take  us  to  France ;  but  since  the  King  was 
unmarried,  and  one  of  us — or  one  of  our  children — 
might  inherit  the  throne,  it  was  not  permitted  to  us 
to  leave  Spain,  for  fear  of  foreign  influences.  We 
were  prisoners  for  life  I  It  was  decided  that  we 
should  join  our  brother  in  Madrid,  and  our  mother 
should  go  away  to  France  without  us.  I  was  never 
to  live  with  her  again,  but  I  parted  from  her  without 
anxiety,  since  at  last  I  had  my  wish — to  be  with  my 
brother. 


42 


CHAPTER  III 
PULLING  THE  STRINGS  OF  SOVEREIGNTY 

If  our  fortunes  had  carried  us  directly  from  Paris 
to  stay  with  my  brother  in  the  palace  of  Madrid, 
perhaps  I  should  have  found  myself  still  caged  there. 
But  freedom  is  only  by  comparison;  and,  after  my 
unhappiness  in  the  Alcazar,  it  seemed  to  me  now  as  if 
my  life  had  really  been  given  wings.  Our  arrival 
was  almost  private;  the  people  in  the  streets,  accus- 
tomed to  the  sight  of  royalty,  did  not  make  a  great 
to-do  about  us  (for  it  is  chiefly  curiosity  that  draws 
crowds,  I  find,  even  to  see  kings !),  and  the  one  thing 
that  looked  like  a  public  decoration  in  our  honour 
was  the  washing,  which  it  is  the  custom  in  Madrid 
to  hang  from  the  street  windows  to  dry.  It  was 
an  embarrassing  decoration,  because  the  articles  were, 
as  one  might  say,  very  intimate.  They  made  a  joke 
for  us. 

We  arrived  in  high  spirits  at  the  royal  palace,  and 
I  was  glad  to  find  it  not  only  gorgeous,  but  most 
comfortable.     It  had  been  built  by  Charles  III. — as 

43 


COURT  LIFE  FROM  WITHIN 

ever}  rliin;:;  in  Madrid  seems  to  have  hern  built — but 
111}  brother  had  had  it  modernised  with  those  con- 
veniences of  heating  and  plumbing  which  our  antique 
splendour  had  hitherto  done  without  in  Spain.  He 
had  allotted  a  whole  wing  to  us  three  Infantas  (my 
sister  Pilar,  my  sister  Paz,  and  I),  and  we  each  had 
our  own  maids  and  servants  from  Sevilla,  so  that  we 
made  quite  a  household.  He  had  installed  in  an- 
other wing  my  sister  the  Infanta  Isabel,  whom  I 
hardly  knew,  because  she  had  not  been  with  us  in 
France  during  the  revolution.  She  was  to  take  our 
mother's  place  towards  us.  She  had  been  married  at 
sixteen  to  a  prince  of  Naples;  she  had  lived  all  her 
life  among  the  forms  and  traditions  of  royalty,  and 
she  was  genuinely  devoted  to  their  maintenance.  I 
should  have  been  afraid  for  my  new  liberty  if  I  had 
not  foreseen  that  her  direction  over  us  would  be 
tempered  by  my  brother's  indulgence.  I  knew  that 
he  had  its  much  impatience  as  I  for  what  we  called, 
jocularly,  between  ourselves,  the  "singeries"  (mon- 
key tricks)  of  royalty.  And  so  I  began,  with  great 
expectations,  what  proved  to  be  the  ha])piest  period 
of  my  life. 

I  was  able  to  rise  carl)^  because  my  brother  was 

44 


PULLING  THE  STRINGS 

always  up  at  half-past  seven,  to  ride  in  the  Casa 
Campo  for  an  hour,  and  I  rode  horseback  with  him 
— to  my  great  joy.  Then,  at  nine,  we  girls  had  our 
lessons  while  he  met  his  Ministers.  Early  rising  is 
not  a  Spanish  habit.  My  mother,  when  she  was 
Queen,  had  met  her  Ministers  after  the  theatre,  at 
midnight,  and  worked  with  them  more  in  the  night- 
time than  during  the  day.  And  my  brother's  Min- 
isters had  protested  against  his  nine  o'clock  Cabinet 
meetings;  but  he  had  won  them  to  it  with  the  smiling 
and  tactful  determination  that  always  secured  him 
his  own  way. 

At  midday  we  lunched  with  him,  the  whole  house- 
hold together,  a  score  at  table,  with  ladies  and  gen- 
tlemen-in-waiting, officers,  and  aides-de-camp;  but, 
on  account  of  the  presence  of  the  latter,  conversa- 
tion was  always  formal.  It  was  different  on  the 
afternoon  drives.  Then  we  were  alone,  for  he  drove 
himself,  and  I  sat  beside  him;  there  were  just  the 
two  servants  on  the  rear  seat,  and  no  one  to  overhear 
us.  Best  of  all  were  the  visits  I  paid  him  in  his 
apartments,  where  it  was  not  considered  necessary 
that  I  should  be  followed  by  a  lady-in-waiting,  since 
I  was  under  the  protection  of  the  King.     The  guards 

45 


COl^RT  LIFE  FROM  WITHIN 

only  took  mc  across  the  public  gallery  in  the  centre 
of  the  palace — a  soldier  on  each  side  of  me  and  an 
officer  in  front,  because  in  this  gallery  some  attempts 
had  been  made  to  kill  my  mother  when  she  was 
Queen — and  the  ushers,  who  led  me  down  the  halls, 
left  me  when  I  entered  my  brother's  antechamber. 
He  had  collected  a  large  library  for  his  own  use,  and 
he  made  me  free  of  it  on  condition  that  I  should  not 
tell  any  one.  At  last  I  had  books  I  And  more  than 
I  could  read. 

What  adventures!  I  was  most  eager  for  history 
and  philosophy,  because  my  mind  had  been  denied 
access  to  facts,  and  I  read  all  that  I  could  find,  in- 
discriminately. It  was  probably  my  brother  who 
directed  me  to  Kant,  his  own  education  having  been 
chiefly  German,  in  Vienna.  But  my  personal  fa- 
vourite among  the  philosophers  was  Emerson.  I 
suppose  it  was  his  sturdy  doctrine  of  self-reliance 
that  appealed  to  me — his  insisting  that  nothing  is  at 
last  sacred  but  the  integrity  of  one's  own  mind — • 
and,  although  I  have  not  read  him  for  years,  I  still 
remember  him  with  the  glow  of  my  pleasure  in  his 
words.     For    poetry    I    had    no    appetite.     French 

46 


PULLING  THE  STRINGS 

poetry  seemed  to  me  very  light,  without  ideas.  And 
fiction,  English  fiction  particularly,  to  which  my  sis- 
ters were  devoted,  interested  me  but  little.  I 
wanted  things  to  be  true.  I  could  not  read  Balzac ; 
I  do  not  know  why. 

With  Shakespeare  I  had  an  odd  experience.  We 
studied  him  with  our  governess  to  perfect  our  Eng- 
lish, and  of  course  I  realised  that  his  verse  was 
beautiful ;  but  when  his  kings  and  queens  spoke  their 
lines  they  seemed  to  me  to  be  playing  parts  that 
had  been  written  to  make  fun  of  the  claims  of 
Royalty.  My  governess  was  indignant  when  I  told 
her  that.  She  said  it  was  not  true ;  that  the  speeches 
were  meant  to  be  taken  seriously.  "But  no  I"  I 
would  cry.  "Don't  you  see^  Shakespeare  is  mak- 
ing fun  of  us.  He  knew  we  were  not  so,  but  he 
could  not  tell  it  in  those  days.  He  is  laughing  at 
us.     He  knew  it  was  absurd." 

And  when  we  read  Hamlet  I  argued  with  her: 
"There !  He  has  made  a  mad  prince  who  talks  fool- 
ishness. If  he  had  respected  Royalty  as  much  as 
you  say,  he  would  not  have  written  it.  If  you  have 
an  idiot  in  your  family,  you  do  not  let  people  see 

47 


COURT  LIFE  FROM  WITHIN 

him.  No;  he  is  hiughing  at  his  pompous  kings." 
And  my  governess  scoklctl  in  vain.  I  still  feel  the 
same  about  Shakespeare's  Royalties. 

Outside  of  my  books  I  began  to  be  most  interested 
to  understand  the  conditions  in  Spain  itself.  Why 
had  there  been  a  revolution?  And  why  had  my 
brother  been  called  to  the  throne?  I  was  told  that 
my  mother's  rule  had  been  too  "clerical" — that  the 
priests  had  had  too  much  power — and  that  when  the 
Republicans  had  failed  to  provide  a  stable  Govern- 
ment my  brother  had  been  welcomed  as  a  liberal 
King.  But  the  story  of  the  way  in  which  he  came 
to  be  proclaimed  seemed  to  contradict  this  reason- 
able explanation. 

The  ladies  of  the  Court,  it  appeared,  had  merely 
given  money  to  soldiers  in  the  army  to  cry  "Viva  cl 
Rcy  AJfonsoV  when  General  Martinez  Campos 
called  out  to  them  one  morning,  ''Viva  cl  RcyT 
General  Campos  had  then  telegraphed  to  my  brother 
that  the  army  had  proclaimed  him  King.  My 
brorlur  admitted  to  me  that  he  had  received  the  tele- 
gram as  an  invitation  to  an  adventure,  and,  being 
fond  of  adventures,  he  had  accepted  it. 

He  rode  into  Madrid,  a  boy  of  seventeen,  on  a 

48 


PULLING  THE  STRINGS 

spirited  horse,  followed  by  the  general  and  his  offi- 
cers. The  horse,  excited  by  the  crowds,  pranced  and 
curveted;  the  crowd  cheered  his  riding,  and  the  more 
they  cheered  the  more  he  made  the  animal  caper. 
Every  one  admired  him.  He  had — what  is  a  valu- 
able asset  for  a  King — a  very  winning  smile,  and  he 
smiled  and  rode  his  way  into  the  hearts  of  the  peo- 
ple. From  the  palace  he  announced  to  the  Parlia- 
ment that  he  had  been  proclaimed  King,  and  the 
Parliament  accepted  him  on  behalf  of  the  country. 
The  only  opposition  came  from  the  Carlist  rebel- 
lion, led  by  Don  Carlos,  a  rival  claimant  to  the 
throne.  My  brother  went  at  once  to  the  war,  and 
the  rebellion  was  put  down.  General  Campos  and 
his  family  were  rewarded  with  lands  and  titles,  and 
my  brother  remained  securely  on  the  throne. 

I  thought  it  was  a  strange  thing  that  a  King 
could  be  made  in  Spain  on  the  strength  of  a  shout 
from  a  few  soldiers ;  but  it  was  the  only  explanation 
that  any  one  could  give  me.  When  my  mother  had 
been  dethroned,  the  Republicans  had  first  chosen  as 
King  a  Prince  Amadeo  of  Savoy,  son  of  Victor  Em- 
manuel. But  after  a  brief  reign  Amadeo  resigned 
the  crown  and  left  the  country.     He  told  me  him- 

49 


COURT  LIFE  FROM  WITHIN 

self  that  he  had  never  found  out  why  the  throne  had 
been  offered  to  him,  nor  why  his  rule  had  been  re- 
jected.    It  was  all  a  myster}-  to  him. 

Similarly,  I  found  that  the  way  in  which  my 
mother  herself  had  come  to  the  succession  was  as 
peculiar  as  all  the  rest.  When  her  father,  Ferdi- 
nand VII.  was  taken  with  his  final  illness,  there  was 
a  Salic  Law  in  Spain  by  which  his  brother  Carlos 
would  be  his  heir  and  successor.  But  an  old  enmity 
existed  between  Don  Carlos  and  my  mother's  aunt, 
the  Infanta  Luisa  Carlota.  She  had  said  to  him, 
"You'll  never  reign."  And  he  had  laughed  at  her. 
But  when  the  King  was  plainly  dying  of  paralysis, 
she  put  before  him  a  paper  that  she  had  prepared, 
abolishing  the  Salic  Law;  and,  placing  a  pen  in  his 
hand,  she  took  hold  of  his  fingers  and  began  to  sign 
his  name  to  the  decree.  The  Prime  Minister,  Calo- 
marde,  seeing  what  she  was  doing,  put  his  hand  over 
hers  to  stop  her.  She  stopped  long  enough  to  strike 
him  a  blow  on  the  head  that  dazed  him.  When  he 
recovered  himself  the  document  had  been  signed  and 
King  Ferdinand  was  dead.  Calomarde  bowed  gal- 
lantly and  said  to  her,  in  the  words  of  a  Spanish 
proverb,  "A  fair  hand  can  do  no  wrong."     She  re- 

50 


o 


PULLING  THE  STRINGS 

plied,  "No;  but  it  can  strike,  eh*?"  And  the  law 
against  the  succession  of  a  woman  having  been  thus 
repealed,  my  mother  came  to  the  throne,  an  infant, 
under  the  regency  of  her  mother,  Queen  Maria 
Cristina,  and  protected  by  her  aunt.  Don  Carlos 
made  war  upon  her,  but  he  was  unsuccessful. 

This  story  my  mother  told  me  herself.  I  was 
puzzled  to  know  why  no  one  but  Don  Carlos  had  ob- 
jected to  such  a  manner  of  changing  the  succession. 
I  got  no  explanation.  Like  the  proclaiming  of  my 
brother  and  the  summons  to  King  Amadeo  to  rule, 
it  was  a  mystery.  Did  it  all  mean,  then,  that  no  one 
but  the  Royal  claimants  cared  who  was  King  in 
Spain  *?  Was  it  that  the  apparent  Government  in 
Spain,  as  in  most  countries,  was  not  the  real  Govern- 
ment, and  that  the  actual  rulers  of  the  country  did 
not  worry  about  who  was  in  power  in  Madrid,  since 
the  power  was  impotent"? 

I  found  in  talking  with  my  brother  that  he  was 
very  interested  in  his  work  and  the  problems  of  gov- 
ernment— but  puzzled  to  know  how  to  do  anything 
to  help  the  people — and  saddened  by  conditions  that 
he  could  not  improve.  He  used  to  say,  "I  do  not 
understand  this  country  yet,  but  I  shall  find  a  way 

51 


COURT  LIFE  FROM  WITHIN 

to  do  something  with  it  after  I  liavc  reigned  over  it 
a  little  longer."  He  had  no  faith  in  die  politicians, 
and  when  one  party  lost  office  and  another  came  to 
authority,  and  I  asked  him  if  this  would  improve 
matters,  he  replied:  "No,  It  makes  no  difference. 
They  are  the  same  dog  with  different  collars." 

He  was  apparently  very  popular,  and  no  one 
openly  opposed  him;  but  one  could  see  that  much  of 
the  common  show  of  loyalty  was  a  pleasant  make- 
believe,  designed  to  flatter.  Once  when  we  were 
visiting  a  town  together,  driving  in  a  carriage  with 
the  mayor,  the  bo}s  in  the  street  kept  screaming 
"Vdva  el  RcyJ"  so  shrilly  that  my  brother,  who  was 
trying  to  talk  with  the  mayor,  could  not  make  him- 
self heard.  "It  is  too  bad,"  he  said  to  the  mayor. 
"They  scream  so  loudly  that  I  cannot  talk  with  you 
as  I  wish."  The  mayor  replied,  with  simplicity, 
"Ah,  }-our  Majesty,  if  I  had  known  that  you  would 
wish  to  talk  with  me,  I  would  not  have  paid  them 
so  much."  And  thereafter,  whenever  I  saw  a  people 
very  enthusiastic  in  welcoming  a  king,  I  wondered 
how  much  they  were  being  paid. 

At  another  time  my  sisters  and  I  were  making  an 
excursion   in   the   mountains,   and   we   were   accom- 

52 


PULLING  THE  STRINGS 

panied  by  a  mayor  who  had  provided  us  with  the 
donkeys  on  which  we  rode.  Whenever  we  came  to 
a  village,  the  children  first,  and  then  the  older  peo- 
ple would  come  out  and  cheer  us.  And  they  cheered 
us  by  name.  "Seel"  the  mayor  would  say.  "See 
how  popular  you  are  I  They  know  you  all."  As 
there  were  four  of  us,  and  we  had  never  been  in  the 
district  before,  we  were  astonished  and  very  much 
flattered  I  And  the  mayor  beamed.  At  every  vil- 
lage it  was  the  same.  "Viva  la  Infanta  Isabel! 
Viva  la  Infanta  Pilar!  Viva  la  Infanta  Paz! 
Viva  la  Infanta  Eulalia!" — each  as  we  came.  And 
the  mayor,  delighted  and  smiling  and  bowing,  kept 
repeating:  "But  see!  It  is  really  wonderful  I 
You  are  all  known.     You  are  so  popular !" 

After  a  time  I  wished  to  try  my  sister  Pilar's 
donkey,  and  I  asked  her  to  change  with  me.  The 
mayor  objected.  No,  no;  I  must  not  do  it.  It 
would  not  be  right.  "What*?"  I  said.  "Is  it  for- 
bidden by  Spanish  etiquette  that  I  ride  my  sister's 
donkey*?"  And  I  insisted.  Then  the  mayor,  seeing 
that  I  was  determined,  explained,  in  angry  confusion 
that  we  could  not  change  donkeys  because  our  names 
had  been  clipped  on  their  tails,  so  that  the  people 

53 


COURT  LIFE  FROM  WITHIN 

might  know  who  we  were  I  And  at  the  next  village 
I  watched  the  boys  come  behind  us  and  read  our 
names  on  the  donkeys'  tails  before  they  set  up  their 
shouting  I 

I  thought  it  very  clever — though  such  a  joke  on 
us — and  I  soon  found  that  it  was  typically  Spanish. 
They  were  very  ingenious  at  playing  such  little  tricks 
of  deception.  One  of  the  oddest  happened  when  we 
were  making  an  official  visit  to  another  town,  and 
driving  again  with  another  mayor.  As  we  pro- 
ceeded slowly  through  a  crowded  street,  suddenly  a 
boy  ran  into  the  roadway  and  dived  between  the 
wheels  of  our  carriage.  We  were  afraid  that  he 
would  be  killed,  and  we  shouted  to  the  driver,  who 
pulled  up  his  horses.  The  boy  crawled  out  between 
the  opposite  wheels  and  ran  away,  but  before  we 
could  start  on  again  another  boy  did  the  same  thing. 
This  alarmed  me  so-^with  the  fear  of  running  over 
some  one — that  I  wanted  to  stop  altogether.  How 
could  one  drive  through  a  town  where  the  children 
did  such  mad  things'?  I  would  not  go.  The  mayor 
assured  me  that  it  would  not  occur  again,  but  I  re- 
fused to  believe  him.  How  did  he  know?  If  these 
two  boys  would  do  it,  why  not  odicrs'^     Finally,  to 

54 


PULLING  THE  STRINGS 

calm  me,  he  admitted  that  he  had  hired  these  two 
boys  to  throw  themselves  under  our  wheels.  But 
why*?  Because  we  were  in  front  of  his  house,  and 
his  wife  and  family  had  wished  to  have  a  good  look 
at  us,  and  he  had  devised  this  charming  plan  to  stop 
the  carriage  under  their  windows. 

With  a  people  whose  simpler  citizens  are  capable 
of  such  subterfuges,  you  may  believe  it  was  not  easy 
to  discover  the  truth  of  what  was  going  on  in  the  in- 
tricacies of  Government.  The  truth,  as  far  as  I  was 
ever  able  to  discover  it,  was  this. 

In  Spain  there  was  an  elaborate  system  of  what 
is  called  "bossism"  in  the  United  States  of  America. 
But  in  Spain  it  had  been  carried  to  its  final  perfec- 
tion. In  every  small  community  there  was  some 
wealthy  person  who  controlled  the  machinery  of 
public  administration.  He  chose  the  persons  who 
were  to  fill  the  elective  offices,  and  the  election  re- 
turns were  changed  or  manufactured  to  certify  the 
election  of  his  creatures.  In  office,  then,  these  men 
obeyed  his  orders.  Taxes  were  levied,  the  laws  were 
administered,  and  justice  was  dealt  out,  as  he  di- 
rected, for  the  benefit  and  protection  of  himself  and 
his  friends.     All  the  officials,  ostensibly  appointed  or 

55 


COURT  LIFE  FROM  WITHIN 

elected  to  represent  the  people  and  carry  out  the 
popular  will,  represented  only  the  "cacique"  (as  he 
is  called)  and  obeyed  only  him. 

Over  the  smaller  caciques  were  bigger  caciques, 
witli  more  power  and  a  larger  following,  just  as,  in 
the  United  States,  over  the  boss  of  a  city  there  is  a 
state  boss.  But  in  Spain  the  people  had  become 
quite  unable  to  free  themselves,  and  there  was  an 
absolute  administration  of  the  functions  of  Govern- 
ment for  the  benefit  of  the  office-holders  and  the 
wealthy  men  who  put  them  into  office. 

A  change  of  the  party  in  power  at  Madrid  made 
no  difference.  They  were,  as  my  brother  said,  "the 
same  dog  with  different  collars."  They  all  obeyed 
the  caciques. 

As  in  America,  all  indirect  taxes  fell  most  heavily 
on  those  least  able  to  bear  them.  The  rents,  the  cost 
of  living,  the  necessities  of  life  were  high;  wages 
were  low.  No  poor  person  ever  dared  to  go  to  law. 
There  is  a  Spanish  proverb  that  "Lent  and  prisons 
are  made  for  the  poor."  Money  ruled,  and  ruled 
everything. 

Along  with  this  rulr  of  money  went  a  rule  of  the 
priests.     Spain  liad  been   for  centuries  the  outpost 

56 


PULLING  THE  STRINGS 

of  Christianity  in  the  war  with  Mohammedanism. 
In  the  age-long  struggle  against  the  Moors  the 
Church  became  the  symbol  of  national  freedom  to 
all  Spaniards;  their  faith  and  their  freedom  were 
both  threatened,  and  they  fought  for  both  together. 
The  wars  for  the  possession  of  America  kept  the  same 
aspect  of  religious  wars,  because  they  were  waged 
against  a  Protestant  nation;  and  down  almost  to 
modern  times  the  Government  and  the  Church  were 
such  partners  in  being  that  it  was  impossible  they 
should  separate. 

Now,  with  peace  and  commercial  development, 
the  problems  of  Government  had  become  wholly  po- 
litical, and  the  priests  were  as  busy  in  politics  as 
were  the  caciques.  The  State  not  only  maintained 
all  the  churches  and  buildings  of  the  religious  or- 
ders, but  paid  salaries  to  the  priests  and  the  monks 
and  the  nuns.  They  were  all,  in  this  respect,  offi- 
cials of  the  administration,  drawing  money  from  the 
public  revenues,  so  that  they  conspicuously  benefited 
by  the  plundering  of  the  people.  Therefore,  when- 
ever discontent  with  the  Government  gathered  head 
in  rebellion,  it  was  inevitably  an  "anti-clerical"  re- 
volt, even  though  it  had  no  concern  whatever  with 

57 


COURT  LIFE  FROM  WITHIN 

religion.  That  was  not  only  very  unfortunate  for 
the  State,  since  it  made  reformation  difficult  by  mak- 
ing it  seem  anti-religious;  it  was  also  very  unfortu- 
nate for  the  Church,  since  it  directed  popular  dis- 
satisfaction against  the  priests  instead  of  against  the 
misgovernment. 

So  the  people  of  Spain,  although  they  were  almost 
as  free  to  vote  at  elections  as  the  people  of  the 
United  States,  had  really  no  voice  at  all  in  their  own 
government.  When  they  revolted  they  made  a  use- 
less "anti-clerical"  revolt  that  took  them  nowhere, 
because  they  got  involved  in  a  quarrel  about  reli- 
gion and  the  burning  of  churches.  When  a  Repub- 
lic was  declared,  with  the  aid  of  the  army — which 
was  Republican  because  the  aristocracy  did  not  even 
serve  as  officers — the  system  of  misgovernment  con- 
tinued under  a  new  name. 

It  made  no  difference  to  the  caciques  whether  there 
was  a  King  or  a  Republic;  they  ruled.  If  the  army 
proclaimed  my  brother  King,  the  Parliament,  for 
the  caciques,  accepted  him  in  the  name  of  the  peo- 
ple. It  did  not  matter;  he  was  powerless,  simply 
because  he  could  only  act  through  the  officials  of 
the  State  who  were  largely  responsible  for  the  con- 

58 


PULLING  THE  STRINGS 

ditions.  I  think  the  caciques  would  rather  have  a 
king  than  a  Republic,  because  the  throne  could  be 
made  a  scapegoat  in  case  of  revolt.  And,  though 
jealous  of  the  influence  of  the  priests  with  the  peo- 
ple, they  were  always  in  partnership  with  that  in- 
fluence to  protect  themselves. 

I  write  this  explanation  here  as  if  it  were  some- 
thing that  I  and  my  brother  and  everybody  else 
understood.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  we  none  of  us 
understood  it.  How  should  we"?  We  were  stran- 
gers to  the  country.  There  was  a  Chinese  wall 
around  us,  to  keep  us  from  learning  anything  that 
the  administration  did  not  wish  us  to  know.  My 
brother  was  very  young — at  this  time  only  nineteen. 
(It  is  significant  how  the  Government  of  Spain  pre- 
fers young  sovereigns.)  And  the  poor  people  of 
Spain,  who  might  have  told  us  if  they  had  not  been 
dumb,  did  not  even  know  themselves  what  was 
wrong. 

My  brother  worked  very  hard,  trying  to  oversee 
those  departments  of  the  Government  that  were  most 
easily  watched,  such  as  the  army  and  the  navy.  He 
did  not  trust  to  official  reports,  but  went  himself  to 
see  if  the  reports  were  accurate.     It  was  on  such 

59 


COURT  LIFE  FROM  WITHIN 

visits  that  wc  luid  our  adventures  with  the 
mayors. 

Once  when  we  were  out  driving,  he  said:  "Let 
us  go  to  the  French  hospital.  I  must  inspect  it.  We 
will  go  without  warning,  so  that  they  will  not  be 
able  to  prepare  appearances  for  me."  So  we  drove 
to  the  hospital,  and  when  we  entered  and  it  was 
seen  that  the  King  had  arrived  a  man  who  had  been 
paralysed  for  }ears  was  so  startled  that  he  got  to 
his  feet  and  walked.  A  miracle  I  And  I  thought  if 
it  had  happened  a  few  centuries  earlier  it  might  have 
made  my  brother  a  saint.  Who  knows?  I  might 
have  had  a  little  shrine  myself. 

He  gave  audiences  every  afternoon  to  whatever 
persons  wished  to  see  him,  whether  to  present  peti- 
tions, or  merely  to  pay  their  respects,  or  what  not. 
And  his  patience  with  everybody  amazed  me.  It 
was  impossible,  I  found,  to  learn  anything  from 
those  who  came.  They  were  usually  too  oppressed 
by  the  formalities  to  be  natural.  One  day,  when  I 
was  assisting  an  older  sister  at  an  audience  to  ladies 
of  Madrid,  one  lady  was  so  embarrassed  that  when 
my  sister  invited  her  to  sit  down — in  the  rather 
brusque  voice  that  was  her  characteristic  utterance 

60 


PULLING  TLIE  STRINGS 

— the  lady  sat  down  on  a  chair  in  which  a  kitten  was 
lying.  I  supposed,  at  first,  that  the  kitten  had  es- 
caped, but  I  soon  saw  the  lady  growing  red  in  the 
face  and  shifting  in  her  chair,  as  if  she  were  pain- 
fully uncomfortable.  My  sister  tried  to  put  her  at 
her  ease  by  asking  her  the  conventional  questions 
about  herself,  and  I  struggled  to  control  my  amuse- 
ment, but  without  succeeding  well  enough  to  trust 
myself  to  interfere.  At  last  my  sister  dismissed  the 
lady,  and  turned  on  me  to  demand  what  was  the 
matter  with  me  that  I  should  be  grinning  and  chok- 
ing instead  of  behaving  myself  with  dignity.  I 
cried:  "But  your  kitten — your  kitten  I"  And  then 
I  saw  that  my  laughter  had  been  very  cruel,  for  the 
kitten  was  dead.  The  lady  had  accepted  the  invi- 
tation to  sit  down  as  a  Royal  order,  and  had  not 
dared  to  get  up  off  the  cat  till  she  was  dismissed, 
although  the  poor  thing  was  struggling  and  fighting 
under  her  for  its  life. 

Naturally  it  was  difficult  to  get  any  information 
from  people  under  such  conditions.  Not  that  I  wish 
to  represent  myself  as  going  about  with  the  air  of 
a  determined  student  eager  to  know.  I  had  only  a 
desultory  curiosity  that  was  continually  stirred  by 

61 


COl'RT  LIFE  FROM  WITHIN 

finding  some  new  puzzle  of  false  appearance.  My 
brother's  problems  of  government  were  usually  laid 
aside  with  ue.  We  shared  his  recreation  rather  than 
his  work.  And,  being  human,  I  ^^•as  much  more 
interested  in  myself,  my  own  problems  of  life,  and 
the  outlook  of  my  future  than  I  was  in  anything 
else.  Being  a  Royal  person  in  Spain  was,  in  some 
of  its  aspects,  rather  a  lark,  but  in  others  it  was  seri- 
ous. For  however  free  I  might  be  in  my  mind  to 
be  amused,  to  be  curious,  to  be  cynical,  there  was 
no  disguising  the  fact  that  I  was  limited  in  my 
friends,  controlled  in  my  affections,  and  of  liberty 
in  love  and  marriage  wholly  deprived.  My  mind 
might  be  what  I  pleased — my  body  was  Royal. 


62 


CHAPTER  IV 

LOVE  AND  ENNUI 

In  speaking  of  one's  past  it  is  difficult  not  to  take 
a  present  point  of  view;  and  when  I  say  that  being 
a  Royal  person  in  Spain  had  its  serious  aspects — 
because  I  could  not  love  or  marry  as  a  private  per- 
son— I  mean  that  it  had  those  aspects  as  I  look  back 
upon  it.  At  the  time  I  was  not  aware  of  them. 
They  were  accepted  by  me  as  constituting  the  nat- 
ural order  of  life.  Long  before  I  could  begin  to 
think  of  such  things  as  love  and  marriage  I  had  been 
schooled  to  the  idea  that  I  could  have  such  relations 
only  with  Royal  persons.  Humanity  was  divided 
in  my  mind  into  three  sexes ;  there  were  women,  men 
of  Royal  birth,  and  a  third  sex,  who  were  to  me,  as 
you  might  say,  priests.  Any  affair  of  love  with  the 
latter  was  unthinkable — not  only  to  me  but  to  them. 
It  never  entered  my  mind,  any  more  than  it  would 
with  a  priest.  If  it  ever  entered  their  minds,  I  could 
not  know  it,  because  they  could  not  speak  to  me, 
even  if  they  wished. 

In  the  palace  of  Madrid,  when  the  usher  would 

63 


COURT  LIFE  FROM  WITHIN 

take  mc  to  tlu-  antechamber  of  my  brother's  apart- 
nunts,  I  would  always  have  an  interval  of  waiting 
while  word  ot  my  visit  was  being  carried  to  the 
King.  And  during  that  interval  there  would  usu- 
al 1}-  be  some  young  officers  or  aides-de-camp  stand- 
ing in  another  part  of  the  room.  Since  they  were 
Spaniards,  and  I  was  not  hideous,  if  I  glanced  at 
them  I  found  them  trying  to  look  romantic.  If  one 
of  them  was  alone,  he  would  either  sigh  "like  a  fur- 
nace," as  Shakespeare  says,  or  try  to  look  unutter- 
able silences  across  the  room.  At  first  this  embar- 
rassed me.  But  when  I  grew  reassured  by  the  fact 
that  none  of  them  dared  approach  me  or  speak  to 
me,  I  found  it  comical;  and  I  used  to  watch  them 
slyly  to  see  whether  they  were  going  to  be  melan- 
choly and  sigh,  or  make  lambent  calf's  eyes  at  me 
in  the  best  Spanish  manner.  Afterwards  I  would 
tell  my  brother,  and  he  would  laugh,  because  he 
knew  the  officers  and  enjo}cd  teasing  them.  It  be- 
came one  of  the  little  jokes  between  us,  that  all  his 
young  aides  were  languishing  their  lives  away  in 
hopeless  devotion  to  mc.  Later,  some  of  them — 
unwilling,    perhaps,    to    be    merely    amusing — an- 

64 


LOVE  AND  ENNUI 

nounced  that  they  were  going  to  blow  out  their 
brains.  I  never  heard  that  any  did  it;  and  I  did 
not  see  what  satisfaction  it  would  have  been  to  them 
if  they  had.  I  supposed  that  they  came  to  the  same 
conclusion  themselves.  After  a  while  I  learned  that 
one  does  not  take  such  threats  of  self-destruction 
seriously  in  Spain.  They  are  only  a  form  of  mild 
attention  paid  to  ladies  by  the  gallantry  that  wishes 
to  be  dashing. 

At  luncheons,  when  the  officers  ate  with  us,  even 
sighs  were  impossible;  and  they  behaved  like  very 
good  boys  before  the  school-teacher.  My  own  be- 
haviour must  have  betrayed  amused  interest,  for  I 
remember  that  our  mistress  of  the  robes — called  the 
''aya" — who  is  a  sort  of  Court  duenna,  read  me  long 
lectures  on  the  government  of  my  eyes.  When  a 
man  conversed  with  me  I  must  not  look  directly  at 
him.  That  look,  in  Spain,  meant  courtship.  I 
must  always  look  down,  and  just  glance  at  him  side- 
long, under  the  ends  of  my  eyelashes,  demurely. 
The  Spanish  girls  do  it  very  well,  but  my  eyes  were 
not  Spanish.  I  had  the  habit  of  direct  gaze;  and 
after  repeated  lectures  from  the  aya  I  pretended  that 

65 


COURT  LIFE  FROM  WITHIN 

I  had  acquired  a  squint  from  trying  to  look  side- 
ways; and  this  annoyed  the  aya  and  made  fun  for 
my  brother. 

The  Spanish  girls  are  taught  to  regard  men  as 
some  sort  of  wild  animal,  whom  it  is  dangerous  to 
meet  unless  one  is  well  protected  by  chaperons;  and 
they  become  as  timid  as  Oriental  girls,  and,  of 
course,  as  curious. 

Sometimes  in  the  evenings,  when  my  sisters  and 
I  were  with  my  brother  in  his  apartments,  he  would 
have  with  him  young  men  of  the  Court,  friends  of 
his  own  age,  grandees'  sons  and  members  of  the 
foreign  legations,  who  went  shooting  and  hunting 
with  him.  I  enjoyed  talking  and  listening  to  them, 
much  more  than  conversing  with  the  young  ladies 
of  noble  families  who  were  invited  to  Court  as  com- 
panions to  us  Infantas.  The  men  had  travelled, 
and  read,  and  met  interesting  people.  The  girls 
had  had  no  experiences  and  no  thoughts.  They 
could  talk  only  of  their  religion  or  of  their  fiances. 

They  went  to  church  for  both.  When  a  young 
Spaniard  wished  to  begin  courting  he  told  the  priest 
about  it.  The  priest  consulted  the  girl's  parents, 
and   if   tlie  match   was  thought   suitable,   arrange- 

66 


LOVE  AND  ENNUI 

ments  were  made  for  her  to  attend  certain  Masses 
on  certain  mornings  with  her  chaperon.  Her  offi- 
cial cavalier  then  posted  himself  somewhere  near, 
made  eyes  at  her  during  the  service,  and  stood  at 
the  holy-water  font  when  Mass  was  over,  to  offer 
her  holy  water  as  she  went  out.  It  was  possible, 
also,  to  leave  a  letter  at  the  church  door  with  some 
old  beggar,  who  would  deliver  it  to  the  proper  per- 
son in  return  for  alms;  but  this  correspondence  was 
not  for  young  girls.  Their  courting  was  carried  on 
by  means  of  devout  looks,  which  were  not  required, 
one  hopes,  to  be  too  oblique.  I  thought  it  very 
silly,  and  I  said  so;  but  the  girls  argued,  piously, 
that  since  love  was  "a  sacrament"  it  was  right  it 
should  begin  with  holy  water  and  benefit  of  clergy. 
I  do  not  remember  that  the  same  argument  was  made 
for  the  intriguing  ladies  who  carried  on  their  cor- 
respondence through  the  beggars.  As  a  matter  of 
fact,  the  relations  between  the  sexes  were  all  wrong, 
since  there  could  be  no  secure  happiness  based  on 
such  ignorance  and  Orientalism  in  a  Western  com- 
munity, where  the  women  can  not  be  denied  after 
marriage  the  liberty  for  which  they  are  not  prepared 
before  that  event. 

67 


COURT  LIFE  FROM  WITHIN 

When  I  was  about  fifteen  years  okl,  a  )  oung  Aus- 
trian archduke  came  to  Madrid  to  visit  ni}  brother, 
and  I  \\  as  presented  to  liim  with  my  sisters,  and  saw 
him  at  a  distance  at  the  dinner-table,  and  bowed  to 
him  as  I  passed  him  in  the  hall.  Next  morning  my 
brother  summoned  me  to  his  apartments  to  tell  me 
that  the  archduke  wished  to  become  engaged  to  me. 
''But,"  I  said,  amazed,  "I  have  scarcely  spoken  to 
him  I"  Never  mind;  he  had  said  he  was  in  love 
with  me;  he  wanted  to  marry  me.  And  as  soon  as 
I  had  recovered  from  my  first  astonishment,  the  idea 
delighted  me.  To  be  engaged  I  It  made  me  feel 
quite  grown-up.  Quite  important.  Almost  mar- 
ried. And  I  thought  it  would  give  me  a  standing 
at  Court  that  would  prevent  the  Mistress  of  the 
Robes  from  being  so  dictatorial. 

It  would  be  impossible  for  me  to  marry  for  some 
time.  Our  family  fortunes  had  been  so  depleted 
during  the  revolution  that  I  had  no  dut^  and  the 
young  archduke  had  not  yet  come  into  his  estate 
cither.  My  brother,  acting  as  a  father  to  his  sisters, 
was  paying  all  our  expenses  out  of  his  own  pocket, 
and  saving  for  us,  as  dots^  the  moneys  that  were  al- 
lowed us  by   the  Government.     So   it   was   agreed 

68 


LOVE  AND  ENNUI 

that  my  engagement  with  the  archduke  should  not 
be  made  pubhc  and  official  until  enough  money  had 
been  saved  to  make  a  provision  for  me. 

Meanwhile  I  was  privately  engaged — and  very 
proud  of  it.  It  was  not  extraordinary,  in  the  Span- 
ish Royal  Family,  for  a  girl  to  be  engaged  in  her 
teens.  My  sister  Isabel  had  been  married  at  six- 
teen ;  and  my  grand-aunt,  the  Infanta  Luisa  Carlota, 
had  been  married  at  thirteen  and  was  a  grandmother 
at  twenty-seven.  But  neither  of  my  other  sisters 
was  engaged  yet,  and  I  enjoyed  the  advantage  over 
them. 

Even  so,  the  archduke  was  not  allowed  to  see  me 
alone,  and  his  courtship  had  to  be  formal.  We 
were  allowed  to  walk  together  in  the  garden  of  the 
palace,  but  only  under  the  chaperonage  of  a  lady- 
in-waiting,  who  followed  a  few  paces  behind  us. 
One  day,  turning  a  corner  of  the  path,  we  were  hid- 
den for  a  moment  from  the  eyes  of  our  chaperon, 
and  the  archduke  seized  his  opportunity  to  kiss  me. 
There  was  an  adventure  for  you!  When  we  re- 
turned to  the  palace  I  hastened  to  tell  my  sister. 
She  was  horrified.  She  ran  to  tell  the  governess. 
The  governess   was   even  more  shocked.     She   de- 

69 


COURT  LIFE  FROM  WITHIN 

clarcd  that  I  had  committed  a  mortal  sin. 
"Good  I"  I  cried.  "I'm  ghid  of  it  I  At  hist  I  have 
committed  a  mortal  sin  I  I  didn't  think  it  was  pos- 
sible— the  way  I  am  watched."  There  was  a  great 
to-do.  They  declared  that  I  must  go  to  confession 
at  once. 

I  went,  next  morning,  defiantly,  and  in  such  ex- 
citement that  I  confessed  in  a  voice  that  could  be 
heard  by  ever)^  one  near  the  confessional.  I  had 
committed  a  mortal  sin  I  I  had  been  kissed  by  the 
archduke  I  And  the  manner  in  which  I  blurted  it 
out  was  so  funny  that  the  priest  burst  out  laughing. 
I  asked  him  how  it  could  be  a  sin  to  be  kissed  by  the 
man  who  was  going  to  marry  me.  He  replied,  teas- 
ing me,  "But  if  you  don't  marry  him,  still  the  kiss 
will  remain."  "I  don't  care,"  I  said;  "it  won't 
show."  He  assured  me,  finally,  that  it  was  not  a 
sin  at  all ;  and  perhaps  I  should  have  been  crestfallen 
if  it  were  not  that  I  had  triumphed  over  the  others. 
Then,  as  the  story  got  about,  it  started  a  reputation 
for  me  as  a  flirt,  which  I  enjoyed  innocently.  An 
Infanta  of  Spain  kissed  by  a  man  at  fifteen  I  It  was 
almost  a  record. 

When  the  archduke  went  away  we  were  allowed 

70 


LOVE  AND  ENNUI 

to  write  to  each  other,  though,  of  course,  our  letters 
had  to  be  read  by  some  one.  I  gave  mine  to  my 
brother,  but  I  do  not  suppose  he  ever  glanced  at 
them;  the  letters  of  a  girl  of  fifteen,  in  such  cir- 
cumstances, would  not  be  very  interesting,  I  began 
to  ask  questions  about  the  Austrian  Court,  where  I 
should  have  to  live  after  I  married;  and  the  reports 
I  heard  of  it  were  not  reassuring.  The  etiquette 
was  most  strict.  I  should  be  worse  off  there  than 
in  Madrid.  And  I  should  be  separated  from  my 
brother.  Very  soon  I  did  not  like  the  thought  of 
my  engagement  at  all. 

My  brother  had  told  us,  at  our  first  meeting  on 
our  return  to  Spain,  that  he  was  in  love  with  a 
daughter  of  the  Due  de  Montpensier;  that  they  had 
been  corresponding  unknown  to  her  family — who 
were  not  so  strict  as  ours — and  that  he  intended  to 
marry  her.  My  mother  was  outraged  at  this  an- 
nouncement, for  it  was  well  known  that  the  Due  de 
Montpensier  had  helped  to  bring  about  the  revolu- 
tion that  had  lost  her  the  throne.  When  we  went 
to  Sevilla,  to  live  in  the  Alcazar,  she  forgave  the 
Due,  who  had  a  place  in  Sevilla,  but  she  continued 
to  intrigue  against  my  brother's  marriage ;  and  it  was 

71 


COURT  LIFE  FROM  WITHIN 

because  of  this  that  he  quarrelled  with  her,  and  let 
her  go  back  to  France  when  we  Infantas  came  to  live 
with  him  in  Madrid. 

The  Due  de  Montpensier  was  the  youngest  son  of 
King  Louis  Philippe  of  France,  and — like  all  that 
king's  sons — extremely  clever.  He  had  married  my 
mother's  sister,  another  daughter  of  King  Ferdinand 
VII.,  on  the  same  day  that  my  parents  married ;  and 
he  had  lived  in  Spain  ever  since.  In  Sevilla  my 
sisters  and  I  became  very  friendly  with  our  young 
cousins,  the  Due's  children,  and  I  became  like  an- 
other daughter  to  the  Due,  whom  I  adored.  He  had 
all  the  charm  of  the  esprit  Frangais,  animated  and 
witty,  accustomed  to  conversation  with  clever  peo- 
ple, tolerant  of  opinions  opposed  to  his  own,  and 
hating — more  than  anything  else  in  the  world — stu- 
pidity. He  delighted  me.  He  sympathised  with 
me.     I  used  to  tell  him  all  my  little  troubles. 

I  think  that  when  the  history  of  my  mother's 
reign  and  the  republic  is  written,  it  will  lay  great 
stress  on  the  Due's  influence  in  Spain.  At  once,  on 
his  arrival,  he  had  attracted  to  himself  all  the  Liberal 
elements   in   the   Spanish   Court,   unconsciously,   as 

72 


Pliotoe:iai)li  by  Heiirie  Manuel,  Paris. 

The  Infanta  Eulalia 


LOVE  AND  ENNUI 

mind  attracts  mind.  He  became  the  head  of  a  Lib- 
eral party — subsequently  called  the  "Orleans" 
party,  because  he  was  of  the  House  of  Orleans — 
although  he  always  declared  that  he  had  neither  de- 
sired nor  tried  to  organise  any  following  for  himself. 
Men  like  the  famous  writer,  Jose  de  Echegaray, 
gathered  around  him,  and  his  palace  became  a  centre 
for  the  dissemination  of  Liberal  ideas.  He  was  an- 
tagonistic to  the  Conservatives,  who  were  chiefly 
Clerical;  and  he  was  much  feared  and  opposed  by 
the  priests.  He  wished  to  improve  the  conditions 
in  Spain.  He  wished,  as  he  used  to  say,  humor- 
ously, "to  make  it  habitable."  But  I  do  not  think 
that  he  had  any  personal  ambition  to  rule;  for,  al- 
though he  had  distinguished  himself  for  bravery  in 
the  French  army,  and  was  a  general  in  the  Spanish 
army,  he  made  no  attempt  to  use  his  influence  with 
the  army  or  with  the  politicians,  in  order  to  obtain 
the  throne  for  himself  when  it  went  begging  after 
my  mother  lost  it.  He  had  not  expected,  he  told 
me,  that  the  reformers  contemplated  interfering  with 
the  ruling  family.  He  supported  the  Liberals  and 
gave  them  money,  in  the  hope  that  they  would  cor- 

73 


COURT  LIFE  FROM  WITHIN 

rtct  the  abuses  and  corruptions  of  misgovernment  in 
Spain.  And  wlien  no  ^ood  came  of  it,  he  assisted 
the  movement  to  call  my  brother  to  the  throne. 

My  brother  was  as  devoted  to  him  as  I  was,  and 
held  to  his  intention  of  marrying  the  Due's  daughter 
in  s])ite  of  all  the  intriguing  and  the  opposition  of 
people  who  feared  the  Due's  influence,  and  the  warn- 
ings that  this  was  a  new  attempt  of  the  Due  to  get 
back  into  political  power  by  putting  his  daughter 
on  the  throne  of  Spain.  It  was  a  love  match  purely 
— the  only  one  I  ever  knew  in  Royalty.  For  royal 
love  matches  are  usually  marriages  between  persons 
of  royal  birth  who  are  enthusiastic  because  they  find 
they  have  no  positive  aversion  for  each  other. 

The  Due,  even  in  Sevilla,  had  planned  to  marry 
me  to  one  of  his  sons,  Antoine  d'Orleans,  whom  I 
liked  as  a  cousin,  but  had  no  other  affection  for.  I 
said  "No."  When  I  came  to  Madrid  this  was  still 
talked  of,  as  such  things  are  discussed  in  families, 
but  I  paid  no  attention  to  it.  My  engagement  to 
the  archduke  ended  it  for  a  time;  but  when  I  grew 
melancholy  at  the  thought  of  going  to  Austria  my 
brother  would  say,  "Well,  then,  why  not  marry  An- 
toine, and  we  shall  never  be  separated."     And  if 

74 


LOVE  AND  ENNUI 

you  have  to  marry  some  one  who  will  be  more  or  less 
indifferent  to  you — and  you  foresee  that  in  one 
choice  your  father-in-law,  at  least,  will  be  charming 
— and  that  choice  will  keep  you  near  a  beloved 
brother  whom  you  might  otherwise  lose — well,  why 
not?  Besides,  I  did  not  have  to  decide  immediately. 
I  could  not  marry  any  one  yet.  I  let  it  drift — and 
drifted  with  it. 

The  Due,  to  encourage  me,  perhaps,  told  me  the 
story  of  his  own  marriage;  and  I  think  it  is  unique 
even  in  the  annals  of  royal  alliances.  It  was,  of 
course,  an  affair  of  State,  arranged  for  him.  His 
bride,  my  aunt,  was  only  fourteen  years  of  age,  and 
she  could  not  speak  a  word  of  French.  He  spoke  no 
Spanish.  When  they  had  been  married — in  great 
pomp  at  a  double  wedding  with  my  mother  and 
father — he  was  left  alone  for  the  first  time  with  his 
wife,  and  the  poor  child  was  so  frightened  that  she 
began  to  cry.  He  did  not  know  what  to  say  to  re- 
assure her,  since  he  could  not  say  anything  that  she 
could  understand;  and,  looking  around  the  room  de- 
spairingly, his  eye  was  caught  by  a  movement  of 
the  curtains  in  the  far  corner  of  the  bed-chamber. 
He  looked  more  intently  and  made  out  the  plume 

75 


COURT  LIFE  FROM  WITHIN 

of  a  head-dress  showing  between  the  hangings.  He 
rushed  across  the  room  and  dragged  out  a  lad} -in- 
waiting  I  His  exasperation  at  his  bride's  sobs  and 
his  own  inability  to  quieten  her  broke  in  fury  on  the 
head  of  the  unfortunate  woman.  She  explained  as 
well  as  she  could  that  they  were  afraid  the  bride 
would  be  too  frightened  if  she  were  left  alone  with 
him,  and  they  had  agreed  to  conceal  one  of  her  hidies 
behind  the  curtains  to  give  her  secretly  a  sort  of 
moral  support.  The  Due  put  her  violently  out  of 
the  room. 

I  suppose  that  the  Due  had  a  strong  influence  on 
both  my  brother  and  me — on  our  opinions  and  our 
points  of  view — yet  it  must  have  been  the  influence 
of  personality  unconsciously  exerted,  for  he  always 
refrained  from  giving  opinions  about  public  affairs, 
even  when  he  was  asked  for  them.  "No,"  he  would 
say,  "I  have  learned  not  to  express  my  opinions. 
They  are  always  brought  back  to  me — so  trans- 
formed that  I  can  not  recognise  them — and  presented 
to  me  as  my  own.  Look  at  the  revolution."  He 
confomicd  in  maftcrs  of  reli;j;ion  to  comfort  his  wife, 
who  was  very  devout;  but  he  never  went  to  confes- 
sion, and  he  required  that  when  he  attended  Mass 

76 


LOVE  AND  ENNUI 

the  priests  should  not  take  more  than  twenty  min- 
utes for  it.  He  would  keep  an  eye  on  the  clock,  and 
when  the  twenty  minutes  had  elapsed  he  would  say, 
"Watch  him  now,"  and  cough  with  peremptory  im- 
patience. The  priest  would  immediately  begin  to 
race  through  to  the  conclusion  of  the  service,  and 
every  one  would  be  anxious  for  him  to  finish,  as  if 
the  Due's  impatience  were  some  terrible  threat  to 
be  placated.  Yet,  for  a  man  so  feared,  I  never  knew 
any  one  less  fearsome. 

He  was  very  patriarchal-looking  when  I  knew 
him — white-bearded,  heavily-fleshed,  and  benign. 
To  his  receptions  in  the  evening  came  all  the  clever 
people,  of  whatever  opinion,  and  whenever  bores  ar- 
rived he  pretended  that  they  had  come  to  see  his 
wife,  and  had  them  ushered  to  her  apartments,  and 
said,  contentedly,  "There  now.  They  will  pray  to- 
gether and  enjoy  themselves."  It  was  the  one  thing 
that  he  asked  of  life — not  to  be  bored.  Imagine 
how  that  would  appeal  to  one  in  the  atmosphere  of 
a  Court.     For  the  plague  of  Courts  is  ennui. 

Princesses  are  peculiarly  subject  to  it.  A  king 
or  a  prince  has  usually  some  work  to  do,  some  power 
to  exercise.     A  princess  is  as  much  more  idle  than 

77 


COl^RT  LIFE  FROM  WITHIN 

a  }Oung  lad}-  as  a  }Oiing  lady  is  more  idle  than  a 
working  girl.  In  an  attempt  to  keep  up  an  exercise 
of  my  brain,  I  continued  my  studies  during  the  whole 
ten  }ears  of  my  unmarried  life  in  Spain — studying 
languages,  the  piano,  singing,  the  harp,  painting — 
and  keeping  myself  occupied  with  reading  and  writ- 
ing as  well  as  I  could.  People  tell  me  that  prin- 
cesses are  stupid.  I  wonder  that  we  are  not  all  idi- 
ots. During  my  life  in  Madrid,  almost  my  only 
public  duty  was  to  help  lay  corner-stones.  I  helped 
lay  enough  to  pave  the  city.  Whenever  nothing  else 
could  be  found  to  justify  our  existence,  the  authori- 
ties would  say,  "Come,  let  them  lay  a  corner-stone." 
I  can  not  believe  that  any  other  stones  were  put  on 
top  of  them.  It  is  not  possible.  There  were  too 
many.  If  the  buildings  had  all  been  completed, 
there  would  not  be  room  now,  in  the  town,  to  walk. 
And  the  Te  Deums  that  I  listened  to  were  numer- 
ous enough  to  exhaust  the  ears  of  Heaven. 

I  have  already  spoken  of  the  audiences  that  we 
gave.  They  were  stupid  beyond  words.  One  re- 
ceived strangers  under  conditions  of  formality  that 
made  them  more  strange,  asked  silly  little  questions 
of  the  women — "Are  )ou  married?"     "How  many 

78 


LOVE  AND  ENNUI 

children  have  you?" — smiled  politely,  and  waited 
for  the  next  one.  It  is  the  sort  of  thing  that  you 
might  expect  from  the  Chinese.  And  the  purely 
Court  receptions  .were  even  worse.  There  you  had 
not  even  strangers,  so  you  could  not  ask  them 
whether  they  were  married.  You  knew — or  you 
were  expected  to  know — all  the  dignitaries,  states- 
men, officials,  aides,  and  diplomats  who  make  up  the 
Court  circle;  you  met  them  again  and  again,  for  a 
perfunctory  moment,  said  something  innocuous,  and 
passed  on — until  you  met  again. 

The  problem  was  to  think  of  something  to  say 
each  time.  Once  after  a  Royal  chapel — when  we 
always  had  to  make  a  circle  of  a  roomful  of  officials 
lined  up  around  the  walls — I  noticed,  as  we  ap- 
proached one  officer,  that  he  wore  black  gloves  with 
his  uniform.  It  is  a  sign  of  deep  mourning.  The 
others  of  the  Royal  Family,  preceding  me,  made  the 
usual  conventional  attempts  to  say  a  little  of  nothing 
as  if  it  were  something  worth  saying;  and  so,  when 
I  came  to  him,  although  I  had  no  idea  who  he  was, 
I  said,  "I  was  deeply  sorry  to  hear  of  your  bereave- 
ment." The  others,  overhearing  me,  were  mortified 
that  they  had  not  offered  him  their  condolences  too; 

79 


COURT  LIFE  FROM  WITHIN 

and  when  the  reception  was  over  they  spoke  to  me 
about  it.  Whom  had  he  lost?  How  had  I  remem- 
bered it?  And  when  I  explained  what  I  had  done, 
without  knowing  who  the  man  was,  even  the  King 
was  envious.  It  was  so  diflicult  to  have  anj'thing 
to  say,  and  a  Royal  Family  is  always  so  haunted  by 
the  problem  that  my  little  ruse  quite  made  a  reputa- 
tion for  me.  And,  if  you  can  believe  it,  the  officer 
was  deeply  touched  and  gratified,  poor  soul,  by  my 
knowing  of  his  grief.  It  is  on  such  trifles  that  a 
king  makes  his  personal  popularity.  But  what  a 
life! 

When  my  brother  married  the  Due's  daughter, 
Mercedes,  we  had  that  beautiful  and  charming  crea- 
ture added  to  our  circle;  but  they  were  such  lovers 
and  so  happy  together  that  we  had  our  brother  less, 
though  we  had  Mercedes  more.  By  this  time  I  had 
quite  lost  interest  in  the  daughters  of  the  grandees 
whom  my  brother  invited  to  Court  to  make  compan- 
ionship for  us.  They  could  play  no  game  more  ac- 
tive than  croquet,  which  they  played  languidly. 
When  I  drove  them  behind  my  four  ponies  they 
wanted  always  to  go  to  the  parks,  where  they  could 
look  sidelong  at  the  young  men ;  and  I  preferred  the 

80 


LOVE  AND  ENNUI 

country  drives  with  more  freedom.  I  soon  wearied 
of  a  conversation  that  was  all  holy  water  and  fiances. 

And  before  long  the  Spanish  young  men  came  to 
bore  me  as  much  as  their  sisters.  They  had  only 
one  conversation  for  a  woman — the  romantically  sen- 
timental, exaggerated  to  the  point  of  foolishness.  It 
was  too  silly.  If  they  were  not  pretending  that 
they  were  blighted  with  melancholy  because  of  your 
unearthly  charms,  they  were  assuring  you  that  they 
would  shed  their  blood  for  you.  I  did  not  want  to 
see  their  blood,  but  their  brains ;  and  they  either  had 
none  or  did  not  consider  it  necessary  to  use  them  in 
their  conversation  with  a  princess. 

In  the  evenings  I  often  went  to  the  opera,  but  my 
brother  had  no  ear  at  all  for  music ;  he  could  not  tell 
the  Royal  March  when  it  was  played;  and  he  com- 
plained that  the  singing  depressed  him  like  the  howl- 
ing of  a  dog.  So  I  went  with  my  sisters  and  some 
older  chaperon.  One  night,  on  our  way  to  the 
opera,  we  had  an  adventure  that  could  happen  only 
in  Spain.  There,  whenever  the  priest  is  summoned 
to  attend  the  dying,  he  takes  the  sacrament  and  sets 
out  on  foot,  accompanied  by  an  attendant  with  a 
little  bell.     The  first  carriage  that  he  meets,  even  if 

81 


COURT  LIFE  FROM  WITHIN 

it  be  a  liircd  hack,  is  stopped  at  the  sound  of  the  bell 
and  he  is  invited  to  ride.  If  the  hack  then  meets  a 
jirivate  carriage  of  more  luxury,  it  is  the  privilege  of 
the  owner  to  take  the  priest  into  his  vehicle.  And 
if  the  Royal  carriage  is  met,  the  Royalty  not  only 
take  the  priest  with  them,  but  they  are  expected  to 
follow  into  the  house  of  the  dying,  and  kneel  in  the 
death-chamber  while  the  last  rites  are  being  per- 
formed. 

On  this  night  I  was  in  our  carriage  with  a  princess 
who  was  most  gorgeously  arrayed  in  a  bright  green 
evening  gown  ornamented  with  silver,  with  a  great 
display  of  jewels  on  her  corsage,  and  on  her  head  a 
huge  rayed  ornament  of  diamonds  in  the  shape  of  a 
diadem.  Her  hair  was  prematurely  grey  and  rather 
wild.  She  had  been  riding  in  the  sun,  and  her  face 
was  flushed.  She  was  an  enonnous  woman — so 
large  that  she  had  to  give  up  horseback-riding  be- 
cause it  became  impossible  to  find  a  horse  capable 
of  carrying  her. 

We  were  scarcely  well  away  from  the  palace  when 
we  heard  approaching  us  the  bell  of  the  sacrament, 
and  I  said  to  her,  hurriedly,  "We  can't  go  to  a  death- 
bed in  this  finery.     I'll  make  the  driver  turn  round." 

82 


LOVE  AND  ENNUI 

But  she  was  very  religious.  It  was  a  sacrilege  to  her 
to  turn  our  backs  on  the  Host.  In  spite  of  my  pro- 
tests, we  met  the  priest,  took  him  into  the  carriage, 
and  drove  him  to  his  destination.  There  the  prin- 
cess and  I  followed  him  into  the  death-chamber, 
devoutly,  though  with  very  doubtful  feelings  on  my 
part. 

We  found  a  man  dying  of  some  sort  of  fever, 
lying  on  his  back  in  bed,  with  a  holy  candle  burning 
on  his  forehead — to  improve  his  temperature,  no 
doubt.  He  opened  his  eyes  at  our  entrance;  and 
when  he  saw  the  unearthly  apparition  of  the  prin- 
cess in  bright  green,  with  the  hair  and  face  of  a  soul 
in  purgatory  and  a  blaze  of  glory  about  her  head; 
he  sat  up  in  bed  with  a  shriek,  pointed  his  shaking 
hand  at  her,  and  cried  "Booh  I"  That  was  all  I  saw. 
I  got  down  on  my  knees,  helpless  with  hysterical 
laughter,  and  covered  my  face  with  my  hands. 
When  the  ceremony  was  over,  I  hurried  out  as  best 
I  could  and  went  to  pieces  in  the  carriage.  The  man 
died  that  night. 

One  would  think  it  was  not  very  sanitary  to  be 
making  such  visits  to  fatal  cases  of  disease.  And  it 
was  not.     We  went  once  to  the  death-bed  of  a  small- 

83 


COURT  LIFE  FROM  WITHIN 

pox  patient  and  knelt  on  pillows  that  had  been  under 
his  head.  But  the  Spanish  people  seem  to  have  a 
vitality  that  is  proof  against  infection;  and  in  the 
South  of  Spain  particularly  they  live  to  incredible 
old  age. 


84 


CHAPTER  V 

MY  MARRIAGE— IN  MOURNING 

I  SUPPOSE  that  no  one  who  has  not  lived  at  a  Court 
will  believe  how  narrow  in  its  interests  the  royal  life 
can  be.  It  is  the  life  of  a  little  family  isolated  by 
an  impervious  etiquette  from  the  immensities  of  life 
that  are  about  it.  One  can  read,  and  hear,  and  be 
aware  of  the  life  of  the  nation  at  second  hand;  one 
can  not  approach  it  intimately.  And  the  little  fam- 
ily revolves  upon  itself,  with  its  own  gossip,  its  own 
scandal,  its  own  jealousies  and  ambitions,  its  own 
jokes,  and  its  own  quarrels,  in  a  kind  of  royal  clois- 
ter, surrounded  by  invisible  walls.  During  those 
first  years  of  my  brother's  reign,  laws  were  passed, 
debates  were  conducted,  the  Liberals  and  Conserva- 
tives struggled  together  for  office,  elections  were 
held,  revolts  were  put  down.  I  heard  nothing  of  it. 
Or  if  I  did,  it  made  so  little  impression  on  my  inter- 
est that  it  made  none  on  my  memory.  I  remember 
that  now  the  famous  Premier  Sagasta  would  be  at 
the  palace  daily,  and  now  his  famous  rival,  Canovas; 

85 


COURT  LIFE  FROM  WITHIN 

but  tliat  was  politics  merely;  and  politics  were  to 
us  princesses  what  business  would  be  to  the  daugh- 
ters of  an  American  millionaire. 

The  entourage  that  surrounded  us  in  the  palace  of 
Madrid  went  with  us  to  the  mountains  when  the 
Court  removed  to  the  summer  palace  of  La  Granja, 
which  is  the  Versailles  of  Spain,  and  modelled  after 
Versailles.  There  we  fished  and  hunted  and  rode 
and  made  excursions  like  a  house-party  at  an  English 
country  seat.  And  when  we  went  to  Santander  for 
the  sea-bathing,  it  was  the  same.  The  same  people 
accompanied  us,  the  same  routine  of  life  engaged 
us,  the  same  round  of  interests  confined  our  minds. 

Contrary  to  the  popular  tradition  about  Courts, 
there  was  very  little  of  the  scandal  of  which  the 
"secret  memoirs"  of  ladies-in-waiting  have  so  much. 
Conditions  in  Spain  did  not  encourage  such  stories, 
particularly  among  the  aristocracy  that  came  to 
Court.  A  Spanish  lady  would  not  even  receive  a 
call  from  a  man  if  her  husband  were  not  at  home; 
she  could  not  walk  alone  in  the  streets;  and,  there 
being  no  divorce  possible — and  the  jealousy  of  the 
Spanish  husband  so  deadly — if  she  were  foolish 
enough  to  engage  in  any  love  intrigues,  the  act  would 

86 


MY  MARRIAGE— IN  MOURNING 

have  to  be  too  secret  ever  to  become  a  matter  of 
gossip. 

And  there  was  nothing  but  such  aristocracy  at 
Court.  We  did  not  see — as  one  would  at  a  French 
Court,  for  example — ^judges,  or  lawyers,  or  acade- 
micians, or  artists,  or  professors,  or  great  engineers 
of  public  works,  or  even  many  military  or  naval  of- 
ficers, except  the  King's  aides.  Such  men  might  be 
presented  at  audiences,  but  did  not  enter  into  our 
social  life.  Nothing  but  aristocracy.  These  had 
few  interests,  and  therefore  few  topics  of  conversa- 
tion. They  shot  rabbits  and  partridges,  but  did  not 
hunt.  They  did  not  talk  of  sports,  since  they  played 
no  games — except  card  games  that  went  on  inter- 
minably, afternoons  and  evenings.  Sport,  in  those 
days  in  Spain,  was  an  affair  of  the  lower  classes 
wholly.  They  were  fond  of  music,  so  we  had  musi- 
cales — and,  of  course,  dances.  When  we  had  clever 
foreign  visitors  who  talked  entertainingly,  the  aris- 
tocrat was  bored;  the  expression  of  ideas  wearied 
him.  He  had  manners,  presence,  dignity,  but  no 
activity  either  of  body  or  mind. 

The  diplomats  we  had  always  with  us,  and  they 
make  one  of  the  traditionally  brilliant  circles  of 

87 


COURT  LIFE  FROM  WITHIN 

Court  life;  but  I  found,  of  all  men  in  modern  Courts, 
the  diplomats  the  most  absurd.  If  the  kings  have 
had  their  powers  curtailed,  the  Court  diplomats  have 
lost  theirs  altogether.  They  are  a  useless  survival 
of  the  days  when  the  relations  between  nations  de- 
pended on  the  feelings  between  Sovereigns,  and  the 
diplomats  intrigued  and  flattered  to  some  purpose, 
by  smoothing  over  misunderstandings  or  exasperat- 
ing offence.  Nowadays,  a  Court  diplomat  has  no 
power  except  to  deliver  the  message  of  his  home 
Government.  He  is  not  entrusted  with  secrets,  any 
more  than  an  errand-boy.  And  he  is  usually  stupid. 
If  a  family  of  position  has  a  son  who  is  not  quite 
bright,  they  say,  "Put  him  in  the  diplomatic  service." 
He  goes  to  a  foreign  Court  and  devotes  himself  to 
attending  royal  funerals  and  christenings  and  wed- 
dings and  church  services  and  Court  functions,  as  the 
"representative"  of  his  Government — and,  if  he  is 
a  Russian  or  a  Southerner,  he  spends  the  rest  of  his 
time  flattering  the  ladies  whose  husbands  have  Gov- 
ernment authority,  in  an  attempt  to  obtain  informa- 
tion from  them  which  their  husbands  have  let  fall. 
Like  the  public  warning,  "Beware  of  Pickpockets," 
in  places   of  public   resort,   the   drawing-rooms   of 

88 


MY  MARRIAGE— IN  MOURNING 

Court  society  should  put  up  the  sign,  "Beware  of 
Diplomats."  The  English  representatives  and  the 
Scandinavians  are  not  so  fond  of  intrigue,  but  too 
many  of  the  others  are  the  official  eavesdroppers  and 
detectives  of  their  Governments,  and  it  is  chiefly  sim- 
ple women  who  are  their  victims — women  who  can 
be  blinded  by  pretended  admiration  and  led  into 
confidences  that  are  indiscreet.  It  is  not  an  occupa- 
tion for  a  clever  man,  and  few  clever  men  remain  in 
it  long.  The  majority  of  those  whom  I  have  known 
were  total  idiots  who  would  swallow  absurdly  wrong 
information  without  blinking  and  convey  it  eagerly 
to  their  home  Governments  without  suspicion.  I 
have  tried  it,  to  find  out.  And  I  found  the  typical 
conversation  of  diplomats  all  in  one  key  of  vanity: 
an  assurance  that  when  they  were  at  one  Court  the 
king  showed  them  "special  favours,"  and  when  they 
were  at  another  Court,  the  same.  It  is  a  conversa- 
tion that  would  weary  a  mistress  of  the  Robes.  It 
can  not  add  much  intellectual  stimulus  to  the  life 
of  royalty.  I  could  never  see  that  it  added  any  to 
mine. 

Nevertheless,  whether  with  diplomats  or  what  not, 
these  days  moved  along  for  us  very  brightly.     We 

89 


COURT  LIFE  FROM  WITHIN 

were  young  and  active.  My  brother  and  his  wife 
were  idylHcally  happy  in  their  married  hfe;  and 
their  happiness  was  reflected  in  all  around  them.  He 
was  working  with  the  prospect  of  greater  success  to 
come  with  greater  experience,  living  simply,  taking 
healthful  exercise,  using  tact  and  patience,  and  keep- 
ing a  cheerful  hope.  Then,  in  the  sixth  month  of 
his  marriage,  the  heart  was  cut  out  of  it  all  by  the 
death  of  his  young  Queen  after  a  miscarriage  that 
resulted  in  blood-poisoning  from  some  bungling  of 
the  doctors.  They  treated  her  for  typhoid  fever  and 
blundered  about  for  weeks,  till  a  putrefaction  had  set 
in  that  no  treatment  could  retard. 

She  was  buried  in  the  Escurial,  and  my  brother 
would  not  leave  the  palace.  Every  day  he  would 
shut  himself  up,  for  hours,  in  the  crypt  where  her 
tomb  was;  and  wlien  we  tried  to  coax  him  away  he 
would  not  speak  to  us.  It  was  midsummer  and  the 
heat  was  extreme,  but  he  would  not  leave  her  body 
to  go  to  La  Granja.  He  would  not  do  anything  but 
grieve,  in  a  silence  tliat  worried  us  more  than  the 
wildest  outburst,  neglecting  himself  and  his  duties, 
taking  no  exercise,  sunken  in  a  mood  of  passionate 
desj)air  that  seemed  to  have  jnit  him   beyond  our 

90 


MY  MARRIAGE— IN  MOURNING 

reach.  He  did  not  sleep.  We  coaxed  him  to  come 
out  for  a  little  fresh  air  in  the  early  mornings  about 
five  o'clock,  and  again  in  the  evenings  after  sunset, 
but  it  was  months  before  I  succeeded  in  getting  him 
to  ride  on  horseback.  The  Spaniards  do  not  under- 
stand a  grief  that  is  silent.  He  did  not  care.  He 
seemed  to  have  lost  interest  in  life  entirely;  and,  as 
the  months  passed,  we  were  afraid  that  his  health 
would  be  destroyed. 

We  knew  that  he  was  tubercular.  It  was  hered- 
itary in  our  family,  and  my  own  lungs  were  affected ; 
but  royalty  is  not  allowed  to  be  ill,  and  we  had  to 
struggle  with  the  situation  privately,  in  a  way  to 
keep  the  knowledge  of  it  from  spreading  beyond  the 
inner  circle  of  officialdom.  My  sister  Pilar,  who 
was  always  delicate,  had  developed  symptoms  of 
what  was  supposed  to  be  some  sort  of  skin  disease, 
and  the  doctors  ordered  her  to  a  resort  in  the  moun- 
tains, to  take  the  baths.  Soon  after  our  arrival 
there  she  became  unconscious,  and  died,  two  days 
later,  of  meningitis.  For  all  this  I  now  blame  the 
state  of  medical  practice  in  Spain.  In  a  country 
where  education  is  wholly  in  the  hands  of  the  reli- 
gious orders,  and  the  hospitals  in  the  hands  of  the 

91 


COURT  LIFE  FROM  WITHIN 

nuns,  there  will  be  neither  a  good  supply  of  medical 
students  nor  opportunities  for  them  to  perfect  their 
studies  under  conditions  that  are  good.  We  had  to 
pay  the  penalty  with  the  rest  of  Spain. 

My  brother  never  really  recovered  from  this 
blighting  of  his  life.  He  took  up  his  work  again,  at 
first  listlessly  and  then  as  an  escape  from  himself; 
but  the  young  and  happy  part  of  him  was  gone  with 
his  young  wife,  and  he  had  nothing  left  but  the  care 
and  activities  of  his  position.  He  was  only  twenty 
years  of  age,  though  he  seemed  older.  Since  there 
was  no  heir  to  the  throne,  the  Government  began 
immediately  to  talk  of  arranging  another  marriage 
for  him.  He  said  he  did  not  care,  so  long  as  he 
was  not  bothered  about  it,  and  negotiations  were 
at  once  begun.  It  was  a  sad  life  for  a  charming 
man.  He  would  have  been  much  happier  if  he  had 
never  been  a  king. 

Meanwhile,  he  returned  to  us  for  companionship, 
and  I  began  to  hear  a  great  deal  from  him  of  his 
work  and  his  plans.  He  had  come  to  recognise  that 
the  day  of  the  warrior  king  was  over,  and  he  was 
occupied  with  attempts  to  promote  the  industrial  de- 
velopment of  the  country.     He  never  wore  a  uni- 

92 


MY  MARRIAGE— IN  MOURNING 

form  except  when  he  attended  the  army  manoeuvres 
or  took  part  in  some  such  military  display,  and  he 
laughed  at  the  kings  who  went  about  as  soldiers,  al- 
ways on  parade.  He  saw  to  the  founding  of  ar- 
senals for  the  manufacture  of  munitions  of  war,  and 
he  struggled  to  correct  the  dishonesty  in  the  expendi- 
ture of  appropriations  for  the  army  and  the  navy, 
but  he  was  not  in  love  with  the  show  of  military 
pomp. 

He  tried  to  persuade  the  grandees'  sons  to  enter 
the  army  as  officers — on  the  theory,  as  he  said,  that 
"occupation  is  the  salvation  of  a  man" — but  without 
success.  The  aristocracy  of  Spain  is  landed,  but  too 
indolent  even  to  oversee  the  administration  of  their 
estates;  and  they  called  the  Due  de  Montpensier, 
contemptuously,  "the  orange-man,"  because  he  di- 
rected the  exporting  of  his  orange  crop  to  England, 
instead  of  letting  it  rot  on  the  ground.  Like  so 
many  aristocracies,  they  would  do  anything  for 
money  except  work  for  it.  They  were  content  to 
take  wealth  and  honour  from  the  nation  without 
making  any  return.  In  common  with  the  Court  dip- 
lomats, they  had  almost  lost  their  reason  for  being. 

All  the  mines  and  many  of  the  large  manufactur- 

93 


COI'RT  LIFE  FROM  WITHIN 

ing  industries  of  Spain  arc  in  the  hands  of  foreign- 
ers, because  the  natives  have  no  training  for  such 
occupations.  They  have  a  hatred  of  foreigners  that 
prevents  them  from  learning,  and  the  King  was  al- 
ways arguing  against  this  hatred  and  trying  to  devise 
means  of  overcoming  it.  He  set  the  example  him- 
self of  going  frequently  abroad  to  study  the  im- 
provements in  foreign  countries — getting  the  sanc- 
tion of  the  Parliaments  for  his  journeys  by  the  simple 
expedient  of  letting  them  know,  good-humoredly, 
that  if  they  did  not  give  it  he  would  go  without  it 
— and  he  came  back  with  ideas  which  he  tried  to 
apply.  Spain  was  sadly  lacking  in  railroads,  and 
he  had  maps  and  plans  drawn  up  for  building  them, 
and  worked  to  finance  them,  but  I  do  not  recall  with 
what  success. 

The  great  enemy  of  all  such  public  works  is  the 
official  dishonesty  in  Spain,  and  with  this  my 
brother  was  always  at  war.  I  am  told  that  the  cor- 
ruption was  not  as  bad  during  his  reign  as  it  was  be- 
fore. He  fought  it  particularly  among  the  Customs 
officials  and  tax-gatherers,  and  such  collectors  of  the 
Government  income,  and  he  made  himself  much 
feared  among  them.     He  worried  about  the  exces- 

94 


MY  MARRIAGE— IN  MOURNING 

sive  criminality  in  Spain,  interviewed  judges,  and 
tried  to  find  out  and  ameliorate  the  conditions  that 
produced  the  crime.  His  influence  was  potent,  be- 
cause Spain  will  accept  a  great  deal  from  a  Sover- 
eign. I  used  to  tell  him  that  it  was  lucky  he  looked 
like  a  Spaniard,  for  he  had  not  the  brain  of  one;  and 
if  he  had  had  my  colouring,  his  ideas  would  have 
aroused  antagonisms  that  would  have  defeated  him 
at  every  turn.  He  was,  as  I  have  said,  supremely 
tactful,  and  he  had  a  patience  that  was  incredible  to 
me.  He  had  not  my  habit  of  saying  what  is  in  one's 
mind,  inopportunely.  He  could  wait,  and  speak  in 
better  time. 

The  arrangements  for  his  second  marriage  he  had 
left  wholly  in  the  hands  of  my  sister  Isabel  and  her 
advisers,  who  were,  of  course.  Clerical.  It  was  con- 
sidered impossible  for  the  King  of  Spain  to  marry  a 
Protestant  princess ;  and,  of  the  Catholic  Royal  fam- 
ilies, the  Italian  princesses  were  eliminated  from  the 
choice  because  of  the  quarrel  between  the  Italian 
Court  and  the  Vatican.  Negotiations  were  opened, 
therefore,  with  the  Court  of  Vienna,  and  a  marriage 
was  arranged  between  my  brother  and  the  Austrian 
Archduchess    Maria    Cristina.     It    was    celebrated 

95 


COURT  LIFE  FROM  WITHIN 

about  a  year  after  the  death  of  his  first  wife.  He 
had  two  daughters  by  this  marriage — both  of  whom 
have  since  died  in  childbirtli — and  a  posthumous  son, 
the  present  King,  born  six  months  after  my  brother's 
death. 

He  died  in  November,  1885,  but  it  was  not  until 
the  previous  month,  October,  that  we  had  any  idea 
he  was  seriously  ill.  It  seemed  impossible  that  a 
man  so  active  could  be  unwell.  He  had  an  energy 
both  in  work  and  recreation  that  wore  out  everybody 
else.  He  lived  with  the  most  healthful  simplicity, 
from  habit,  eating  in  moderation,  drinking  no  wine, 
enjoying  exercise  without  weariness,  and  taking  cold 
baths  that  one  would  not  have  thought  a  consump- 
tive could  endure.  He  showed  no  signs  of  fever  that 
I  knew  of.  The  doctors,  if  they  had  noticed  any 
alarming  symptoms,  did  not  speak  of  them  to  us; 
and  we  were  only  vaguely  aware  that  he  had  to  be 
careful  of  himself.  But  in  October  he  complained 
of  weakness,  and  the  physicians  suddenly  told  us 
that  his  lungs  were  very  bad.  Even  so,  the  matter 
had  to  be  kept  secret — for  fear  of  unnecessarily  dis- 
turbing the  business  of  the  State.  We  went  to  the 
Pardo  to  give  him  rest  and  treatment.     And  before 

96 


Courtesy  of  Collier's 


Alfonso  XIII  of  Spaix 


MY  MARRIAGE— IN  MOURNING 

we  had  really  accepted  the  thought  that  he  was  an 
invalid,  he  was  taken  with  a  hsemorrhage  of  the 
lungs,  cried  out  that  he  was  choking,  and  died  almost 
with  the  words. 

He  was  buried  in  the  Escurial — where  we  had 
laughed  together  at  the  tombs  of  the  Infantas — 
among  all  the  kings,  who  had  become  now  only  the 
names  of  kings — no  longer  brothers,  husbands, 
fathers — ^just  dead  kings — as  he  had  become. 

His  death  was,  I  think,  a  great  loss  to  the  country, 
for  the  King  of  Spain  has  much  power  under  the  Con- 
stitution, if  he  has  the  ability  to  handle  the  instru- 
ments of  his  authority  in  a  way  to  have  his  orders 
carried  out.  And  my  brother  had  that  suavity  of 
will  that  wins  its  way  almost  affectionately  and  puts 
stubbornness  firmly  aside  when  it  can  not  be  won. 
Such  a  king,  placed  above  the  temptations  of  wealth, 
could  protect  the  poor  from  an  industrial  oppression 
from  which  they  are  too  often  unable  to  protect  them- 
selves. And  being  of  a  liberal  mind  in  his  religion, 
he  could  prevent  the  religious  orders  in  Spain  from 
using  their  pulpit  and  sacred  office  for  political  ends. 

His  death  seemed  like  the  end  of  my  own  life  to 
me.     I  had  no  longer  any  interest  or  happiness  in 

97 


COURT  LIFE  FROM  WITHIN 

Spain.  I  had  no  friends  there,  except  the  Due  de 
Montpensier  and  our  little  family.  I  found  myself 
always  a  foreigner  when  I  went  outside  the  palace. 
I  could  not  understand  the  popular  religion,  which  is 
not  Catholicism  as  it  is  known  in  other  countries, 
but  only  the  outward  form  and  name  of  Catholicism 
filled  with  superstitions  and  fetishisms  divorced  from 
the  moral  purposes  of  religion. 

They  have,  for  example,  in  Madrid,  a  popular 
feast  called  ''La  Cara  de  Dlos''  ("The  Face  of 
God"),  when  there  is  exposed  under  glass,  to  be 
kissed  by  the  people,  the  handkerchief  with  which 
Christ  is  supposed  to  have  wiped  the  bloody  sweat 
from  His  face  on  His  way  to  Calvar}-,  and  thereby 
to  have  imprinted  on  the  fabric  a  portrait  of  His 
features,  which  has  been  miraculously  preserved.  In 
front  of  the  church  where  this  relic  is  set  out,  booths 
are  erected  and  an  all-night  debauch  of  drinking  and 
dancing  and  brawling  is  begim.  Between  carouses 
the  people  go  to  kiss  "the  Face  of  God,"  return  to 
their  excesses,  and  only  interrupt  them  to  make  an- 
other pilgrimage  to  the  relic.  It  seemed  to  me  that 
the  whole  religion  of  the  common  people  was  a  sort 
of  feast  of  ''La  Cara  dc  Dhs,''  that  profited  nobody 

98 


MY  MARRIAGE— IN  MOURNING 

but  the  keepers  of  the  shrine.  I  could  not  turn  to 
such  a  religion  for  consolation  in  my  grief.  I  could 
not  look  forward  to  any  happiness  in  a  Court  where 
only  my  love  for  my  brother  had  made  the  stupidi- 
ties of  our  days  endurable.     I  wanted  to  get  away. 

But  I  could  not  get  away  unmarried.  That  was 
impossible.  I  was  still  engaged  informally  to  the 
Due  de  Montpensier's  son,  Antoine  d'Orleans;  but 
now  that  my  brother  was  gone  I  wished  to  break  the 
engagement,  because  I  had  only  entered  into  it 
with  the  idea  that  such  a  marriage  would  keep  me 
near  to  him.  My  determination  aroused  an  amazing 
alarm.  Members  of  the  Government  came  to  plead 
with  me  to  hold  the  Due's  interest  to  the  throne  by 
marrying  his  son ;  if  I  refused,  they  were  afraid  that 
he  would  enter  politics  again,  to  the  extent  even  of 
making  another  revolution.  That  was  absurd.  But 
it  was  not  absurd  that  I  was  as  fond  of  the  Due  as 
if  he  had  been  my  father,  and  he  wanted  me  for  a 
daughter-in-law.  It  was  considered  a  necessity  of 
State  that  I  should  marry  at  once  in  order  to  protect 
the  succession.  I  felt  as  my  brother  had  felt  after 
the  death  of  his  first  wife.     I  did  not  care. 

In  December,  1885,  just  a  month  after  his  death, 
99 


COURT  LIFE  FROM  WITHIN 

the  date  of  my  wedding  was  fixed,  by  Royal  decree, 
for  the  following  Fcbruar}'.  I  remember  that  soon 
afterwards  I  received  a  visit  from  a  girl  friend  of 
my  own  age  who  had  come  to  say  good-bye  to  me 
because  she  was  entering  a  convent;  and  I  thought, 
as  I  spoke  to  her,  how  much  happier  she  was  than  I. 
I  felt  very  sad,  very  depressed.  I  declared  that  I 
would  only  be  married  in  mourning.  They  cried 
out  against  it,  that  it  would  bring  me  bad  luck. 
What  worse  luck  was  left  for  me,  I  asked,  except  to 
die? — and  I  should  not  mind  that.  They  yielded 
to  me;  February  26th  was  set  for  my  wedding-day; 
but  in  the  middle  of  the  month  I  was  taken  ill  of  a 
fever  that  proved  to  be  diphtheria,  and  on  the  26th 
I  had  been  for  several  days  at  the  point  of  death ;  so 
I  had  a  reprieve.  It  was  a  brief  one.  On  March 
5th,  I  was  well  enough  to  be  taken  into  the  big  sit- 
ting-room in  the  evening,  to  sign  the  marriage  con- 
tract before  the  necessary  witnesses;  and  on  the  fol- 
lowing day,  still  very  weak,  I  was  married  in  the 
Royal  Chapel,  with  all  the  company  dressed  in  deep 
mourning,  and  the  church  draped  in  black  as  for  a 
funeral.  I  went  away  on  our  honeymoon,  miserable, 
to  the  palace  of  Aranjuez;  and,  for  once,  I  welcomed 

100 


MY  MARRIAGE— IN  MOURNING 

the  Court  etiquette  that  required  us  to  be  accompa- 
nied by  a  lady  and  a  gentleman-in-waiting,  since 
their  presence  saved  me  from  a  tete-a-tete  with  my 
husband,  for  which  neither  of  us  had  any  inclination. 

One  reads  a  great  deal,  in  histories,  of  the  im- 
moralities of  kings.  What  is  one  to  expect  of  a 
man  married  in  aversion  to  some  foreign  princess 
whom  he  is  forced  to  take  into  his  life  for  reasons 
of  State  that  do  not  make  her  either  beautiful  to  look 
at,  or  intelligent  to  talk  to,  or  congenial  to  live  with? 
If  people  will  not  allow  a  king  to  enjoy  even  the  or- 
dinary temptations  to  be  virtuous,  why  should  they 
exclaim  if  he  seeks,  outside  of  marriage,  the  happi- 
nesses of  personal  intercourse  that  are  denied  him  in 
a  wife?  The  fault  is  not  in  the  kings.  It  is  in  the 
conditions  that  have  required  kings  to  be  more  than 
human  beings  and  content  with  less  than  human  be- 
ings. With  the  unfortunate  queens  it  is  different; 
they  are  raised  in  a  guarded  confinement  of  etiquette 
from  which  they  can  not  easily  escape;  and  they  usu- 
ually  turn  to  religion  and  the  hope  of  a  happier 
world  to  console  them  for  the  stupid  cares  and 
gilded  miseries  that  afflict  them  in  this. 

I  was  not  religious,  but  fortunately  I  was  not  a 

lOl 


COURT  LIFE  FROM  WITHIN 

queen,  and  when  we  returned  to  Madrid  I  began  to 
assert  my  freedom  as  a  married  woman  by  getting 
clear  of  the  formalities  of  Royalty.  We  did  not 
return  to  the  palace,  but  took  a  small  house,  with  a 
garden;  and  there  I  felt  less  depressed,  being  occu- 
pied with  domestic  arrangements  that  were  as  strange 
and  exciting  to  me  as  Robinson  Crusoe's  housekeep- 
ing— although  much  of  it  was  in  the  hands  of  the 
grand  maitrc^  of  course.  I  found  that  I  had  not  the 
traditional  Bourbon  inaptitude  for  practical  aifairs, 
nor  my  mother's  inability  to  understand  the  value  of 
money. 

I  was  told  a  story  of  her  that  amused  me  very 
much.  Once,  to  reward  some  service,  she  ordered 
one  of  her  Ministers  to  pay  a  vast  sum  of  money. 
"But,  your  Majesty,"  he  protested,  "it  is  a  great 
deal."  "Not  at  all,"  she  said.  "See  that  it  is 
paid."  So  the  Minister  secretly  sent  out  instruc- 
tions that  the  sum  should  be  brought  to  him  in  coin, 
and  he  stacked  it  on  the  Queen's  writing-table  in 
piles.  She  asked,  "What  is  all  this  money  for?" 
"That,"  he  said,  "is  the  money  that  your  Majesty 
has  ordered  me  to  pay  to  So-and-so."  She  cried, 
"Good  heavens  I     Not   all    that.     You   are   giving 

102 


MY  MARRIAGE— IN  MOURNING 

him  a  fortune.  Here;  this  is  enough."  And  she 
took  one  of  the  piles  and  gave  it  to  the  Minister,  and 
the  rest  was  sent  back. 

As  soon  as  we  were  settled  I  got  rid  of  the  con- 
stant company  of  the  lady-in-waiting;  I  did  not  have 
her  to  live  in  the  house;  and  this  created  a  sensation. 
I  was  the  first  Princess  of  Spain  who  had  ever  de- 
manded such  liberty.  I  did  not  mind.  I  had  the 
solitude  of  my  little  garden  to  myself,  and  I  could 
walk  and  read  there  in  a  happiness  that  all  the  prin- 
cesses would  have  envied  if  they  could  have  known 
how  pleasant  it  was.  Some  of  my  other  attempts  at 
informality  were  not  so  successful.  One  afternoon, 
while  out  walking  with  my  husband  without  either 
carriage  or  escort,  I  felt  so  ill  that  I  could  not  walk 
back.  There  was  no  vehicle  to  be  had  but  a  passing 
tramway-car,  so  we  got  into  that.  We  were  recog- 
nised. All  the  passengers  rose  and  stared  and  be- 
came so  excited  that  the  driver — ^not  knowing  what 
accident  had  happened — stopped  the  car.  It  was 
some  time  before  we  could  make  our  explanations, 
get  the  people  seated,  and  get  the  car  to  go  on;  and 
the  ride  home  was  too  uncomfortable  to  be  even 
amusing.     I   was   indignantly   scolded   for  having 

103 


COURT  LIFE  FROM  WITHIN 

been  taken  ill  in  such  circumstances;  and  I  never 
tried  again  to  ride  in  a  tramway-car  in  Madrid. 
Silly  nonsense! 

We  were  still  attending  Court  functions  and  re- 
ceptions, and  going  to  dinners  and  luncheons  at  the 
]xUace;  and  on  May  17th  we  were  summoned  there 
to  hear  the  official  announcement  of  the  "Capitan- 
General"  that  ''the  King  of  Spain"  had  been  born. 
It  was  at  first  intended  to  name  him  Ferdinand,  to 
avoid  the  unlucky  XIII.,  but  for  the  sake  of  his 
father's  memory  the  name  of  Alfonso  was  demanded, 
and  he  was  inscribed  as  "Alfonso  XIII.,  Leon  Fer- 
nando Mario  Isidro  Santiago  Pascual  y  Anton." 
(My  mother  complained  that  the  names  were  too 
few.  She  had  been  accustomed  to  give  us  at  least 
a  dozen  each  I)  A  month  later  the  Queen-Regent 
presented  the  King  in  the  chapel,  and  then  offered 
him  to  the  Blessed  Virgin,  in  an  extraordinary  cere- 
mony at  the  church  of  Atoche,  ^^■ith  Te  Deums  and 
Salves,  and  a  Royal  parade. 

It  was  now  almost  midsummer,  and  I  was  resolved 
to  get  away.  I  had  hoped  to  return  to  Paris,  but 
the  Due  de  Montpensier  brought  us  word  that  the 
Orleans  faniih-  might  be  expelled  from  France,  in 

104 


MY  MARRIAGE— IN  MOURNING 

which  case  we  should  go  to  Switzerland  for  our  sum- 
mer. I  was  sorry  for  more  than  selfish  reasons,  for 
I  had  had  visits  from  my  new  relatives,  and  found 
them  charming.  Late  in  June  the  good  news  came 
that,  though  the  Comte  de  Paris  had  been  expelled 
and  his  property  confiscated,  the  Government  would 
go  no  farther;  and  early  in  July  my  husband  and  I 
started  with  the  Due  and  my  mother-in-law  to  go 
through  Paris  on  our  way  to  join  the  Comte  and 
Comtesse  de  Paris  in  Tunbridge  Wells. 

I  was  leaving  behind  me  many  happy  days,  but 
many  also  that  were  so  unendurably  sad  that  I  was 
eager  to  be  gone  from  the  scenes  that  recalled  them 
to  me.  I  was  no  longer  a  prisoner  of  State.  I  was 
still,  if  you  wish,  "a  ticket-of-leave  man."  But  no 
convict,  released  on  good  behaviour,  ever  went  out 
with  more  relief,  even  though  he  was  still  to  be  sub- 
ject to  some  State  surveillance,  and  perhaps  never 
to  be  wholly  free  of  the  instinctive  timidities  of  the 
mind  that  has  been  guarded. 


105 


CHAPTER  VI 
ENGLAND  AND  THE  ENGLISH 

There  now  began  for  me  an  interesting  experience. 
I  had  started  out  to  travel  and  see  the  sights  of  Eu- 
rope, a  bride  of  twenty-two,  with  a  mind  in  some 
ways  older  than  my  age,  as  inquisitive  as  youth,  but, 
perhaps,  not  so  subject  to  youth's  self-deception;  as 
interested  as  youth  in  my  own  observations  (rather 
than  in  any  general  view  or  philosophical  explana- 
tion of  society),  but  sceptical,  and  with  no  youthful 
tendency  to  illusions  either  romantic  or  royal.  The 
European  travels  of  such  a  young  lady  could  not  have 
much  interest,  ordinarily.  But,  for  ten  years  and 
more,  I  went  from  Court  to  Court,  rather  than  from 
country  to  country,  in  that  huge  family  of  Royalty 
whose  members  have  been  intermarrying  for  so  many 
generations  that  all  the  occupants  of  the  thrones  of 
Europe  have  become  cousins,  and  a  princess  can  visit 
from  palace  to  palace  as  if  from  house  to  house 
among  relatives  in  a  countryside.  And  it  was  an 
interesting  experience,  I  say,  because  Royalty  is  not 

106 


ENGLAND  AND  THE  ENGLISH 

of  semi-sacred  caste  that  in  one  country  will  be  ac- 
cepted as  quite  holy  and  God-given,  and  in  another 
will  be  merely  allowed  to  live  pensioned — like  verg- 
ers in  some  fine  old  cathedral  after  its  worship  has 
been  abolished  and  its  altars  removed — and  in  yet 
others  will  be  existing  in  all  the  intermediate  stages 
between  these  two  extremes ;  honoured  by  this  faction 
and  attacked  by  that,  reformed  and  reconstructed 
and  embellished  and  defaced. 

It  was  interesting,  as  it  had  been  in  Spain,  to  dis- 
cover the  anomalies  and  false  appearances  and  thin 
lava-crusts  on  which  we  seemed  to  live  so  securely. 
Being  well  aware  of  how  I  saw  myself  in  my  own 
mind,  it  was  interesting  to  study  what  was  in  the 
minds  of  other  royal  personages — to  see  how  they  re- 
garded themselves  and  how  they  thought  they  were 
regarded — and  to  learn  what  real  credit  we  had  and 
what  actual  appearance  we  made  in  the  minds  of  the 
people  who  saluted  us  with  such  varying  degrees  of 
curiosity  and  respect. 

In  Paris,  where  we  went  first.  Royalty  has  no 
problems.  Being  for  ever  dispossessed  of  its  claims 
in  France,  it  is  accepted  there  without  awe  and  with- 
out enmity.     It  flees  to  Paris  from  the  dulness  of 

107 


COURT  LIFE  FROM  WITHIN 

its  official  litV  in  every  monarchy  of  Europe;  and  at 
times  it  seems  that  more  royalties  are  there  than  in 
all  the  other  capitals  of  the  Continent  together. 
Paris  has  become  a  holiday  rendezvous  for  them ;  and 
it  heeds  them  as  little  as  it  does  its  tourists.  They 
can  meet  and  dine  and  gossip,  unobserved  even  by 
the  Press.  They  can  find  circles  of  aristocracy  in 
which  they  will  be  received  as  formally  as  they 
would  be  in  their  Courts.  Or  they  may  enjo}-,  if 
they  can,  on  terms  of  some  human  naturalness,  the 
life  of  salons  and  studios.  And  if  they  desire  the 
crowded  solitude  of  the  streets,  they  will  rarely  find 
any  one  to  stare.  Paris  is  freedom,  even  for  prin- 
cesses. It  was,  for  me,  on  that  first  return,  an  old 
home  of  childhood  that  I  was  revisiting;  and  I  went 
to  the  convent  to  see  the  nuns  who  had  taught  me, 
and  hunted  up  some  of  my  playmates  to  recall  my- 
self to  them  after  the  nine  years  that  seemed  a  life- 
time that  had  passed.  Then,  in  a  week,  we  set  out 
for  England;  and  there  we  were  Royalty  again. 

It  was  then  I  first  saw  Queen  Victoria,  and  I  shall 
not  easily  describe  what  a  surprise  it  was.  She  had 
been  for  a  long  time  the  great  Queen  in  nu'  thoughts, 
on  the  throne  of  an  empire  beyond  imagination  in 

108 


Dowager  Queen  Alexandra  of  England,  Queen  ]Maud 
OF  Norway  and  Prince  Olaf,  Crown  Prince  of  Norway 


ENGLAND  AND  THE  ENGLISH 

wealth  and  power,  and  ruling  so  many  millions  of 
the  most  civilised  people  devoted  in  their  loyalty.  I 
had  formed  a  mental  picture  of  I  do  not  know  what 
majesty  and  grandeur  for  her.  We  came  to  her  from 
the  City  of  London  (so  impressive  after  Paris)  to 
have  luncheon  with  her  in  Windsor  Castle,  that  is 
so  noble  a  seat  of  sovereignty;  and  when  I  entered 
the  room  in  which  she  waited  to  receive  us,  I  had  a 
shock  of  pity  and  dismay.  She  was  so  small  that 
I  thought  at  first  she  must  be  sitting  down.  And  she 
was  not  only  feeble  with  age,  but  evidently  ill,  her 
eyes  dulled,  her  hands  swollen,  her  face  as  if  fever- 
ish. Her  merely  human  aspect  of  infirmity  was  in- 
creased by  the  black  dress  of  mourning  and  widow's 
cap  that  she  wore ;  and  standing  with  her  two  Indian 
servants  behind  her,  leaning  on  her  short  cane,  in 
that  magnificent  apartment  that  would  have  dwarfed 
a  giant,  holding  out  a  tired  hand  to  you  vaguely  as 
if  she  did  not  clearly  see  you — it  brought  a  lump  to 
the  throat.  Here  was  Royalty  then  I  The  greatest 
and  most  famous  of  us  all  I     Queen  Victoria ! 

My  father-in-law  and  she  had  known  each  other 
many  years,  and  at  the  luncheon  table  he  sat  beside 
her  and  kept  up  a  conversation  with  her.     She  said 

109 


COURT  LIFE  FROM  WITHIN 

very  little,  and  with  her  eyes  most  often  on  her  plate, 
like  a  person  who  is  polite,  but  distracted  by  illness, 
and  incapable  of  rousing  the  mind.  The  English 
Royal  Family  has  the  sensible  habit  of  dining  with- 
out the  ladics-in-waiting,  who  take  their  meals  in  an- 
other room;  so  we  were  en  families  and  the  conver- 
sation was  that  of  intimate  domestic  interests  and  the 
little  social  happenings  of  the  day.  One  could 
hardly  find  a  family  more  charming,  more  serene, 
more  simply  happy. 

And  the  explanation  of  this  air  of  the  English 
Court  is  easily  found.  England  is  a  country  of  ac- 
cepted classes,  of  which  each  class  makes  no  infringe- 
ment on  the  rights  of  the  class  above  it  and  fears 
none  from  the  class  below.  There  are  even  upper 
and  lower  servants  in  a  household.  And  each  class 
receives  servility  from  the  class  below  it  to  reimburse 
it  for  the  servility  that  it  pays  to  the  class  above. 
Royalty  is  just  a  final  upper  class,  neither  envied  by 
an  aristocracy  which  cannot  aspire  to  it,  nor  feared 
by  the  lower  classes  over  which  it  has  no  authority. 
It  is  a  social  ornament  of  government,  a  symbol  of 
national  majesty. 

The  aristocracy  is  almost  equally  ornamental,  with 

110 


ENGLAND  AND  THE  ENGLISH 

certain  appearances  of  power  that  are  allowed  it  by 
the  sufferance  of  the  rest.  The  real  government  is 
the  commerce  and  industry  of  the  nation.  It  is  a 
commercial  empire,  ruled  by  considerations  of  trade, 
but  disguising  itself,  even  to  itself,  by  forms  of  ad- 
ministration that  are  aristocratic,  with  an  established 
church  in  a  nation  largely  nonconformist,  a  military 
power  that  in  the  main  engages  in  wars  for  the  ex- 
tension or  protection  of  commercial  interests,  and  an 
ideal  of  empire  for  humanitarian  ends — at  the  same 
time  making  it  pay.  You  will  always  hear,  for  ex- 
ample, of  the  devoted  self-sacrifice  of  the  British  rule 
in  India,  which  carries  the  peaceful  blessings  of  civili- 
sation to  natives  incapable  of  self-government;  but 
if  India  were  being  held  at  a  continual  loss  to  the 
British  tax-payer — if  he  had  to  pay  out  of  his  own 
purse,  without  return,  to  protect  the  natives  from 
their  own  incapacity — I  wonder  whether  the  British 
Empire  in  India  would  last  a  year.  It  is  this  faculty 
of  almost  honest  self-deception  which  makes  the  Eng- 
lishman so  insoluble  a  puzzle  to  the  foreigner. 

It  makes  the  English  Royal  Family  the  most  pop- 
ularly revered  in  Europe,  even  though  it  has,  of  all 
the  royal  families,  the  least  governmental  power  to 

111 


COl  UT  LIFE  FROM  WITHIN 

compel  awi',  and  has  no  English  blood  in  it  to  endear 
it  to  the  nation,  and  is  allowed  not  even  a  pretence 
ot  leadership  in  peace  or  w  ar  to  make  it  picturesque. 
When  I  attended  Queen  ^'ictoria's  jubilee,  about  a 
year  after  my  first  meeting  with  her,  it  seemed  as  if 
the  whole  nation  had  poured  itself  into  the  streets  of 
London  to  celebrate  the  fiftieth  anniversary  of  her 
succession  to  the  throne.  And  if  one  were  sceptical, 
it  might  be  said  that  they  were  only  to  come  to  enjoy 
the  spectacle  and  to  rejoice  in  the  display  of  their 
own  national  magnificence.  But  the  celebration  had 
all  the  evidences  of  a  personal  tribute,  and  it  was  un- 
doubtedly so  accepted  by  the  Queen  and  her  family. 
King  Edward,  who  was  a  man  of  the  world  not 
easily  deceived,  always  seemed  to  have  this  convic- 
tion of  his  importance  in  the  eyes  of  his  people.  I 
do  not  know  to  what  extent  he  interested  himself 
privately  in  the  problems  of  their  government,  from 
which  the  Royal  Family  is  so  jealously  excluded;  cer- 
tainly, in  years  of  familiar  acquaintance  with  him,  I 
never  once  heard  him  refer  to  them.  Yet  he  was 
a  man  whose  intellect  would  have  been  of  value  to 
his  country,  for  he  was  one  of  the  cleverest  sovereigns 
of  Europe,  a  striking  personality,  genial  and  shrewd. 

1  12 


ENGLAND  AND  THE  ENGLISH 

It  seemed  a  pity  that  such  a  brain  should  be  wasted 
in  the  idleness  of  royal  life  after  it  had  succeeded  in 
developing  itself  in  spite  of  the  restrictions  that  make 
most  royal  brains  so  dull. 

Coming  first  to  England  from  the  animations  of 
the  South,  I  thought  the  people  looked  as  stupefied 
as  if  they  were  all  just  recovering  from  a  fit;  and  I 
felt  the  same  general  blank  of  reserved  dulness 
among  the  aristocratic  and  official  circles  that  sur- 
rounded the  Court.  It  seemed  a  country  that  was 
not  ruled  by  intelligence  but  by  property.  Property 
is  a  blind  master,  and  great  masses  of  the  people  were 
already  rotted  out  by  a  poverty  and  industrial  oppres- 
sion from  which  any  governing  intelligence  would 
have  protected  them.  It  took  the  fiasco  of  the  Boer 
War,  and  the  strikes  and  internal  disorders  of  the 
last  few  years,  to  awaken  the  nation  from  its  stupor 
of  imperial  complacency.  Since  that  time  there  has 
been  a  great  appearance  of  revolt  and  reform;  and  I 
have  been  interested  to  hear  the  foreign  speculation 
on  the  probable  fate  of  the  throne  in  the  final  issue 
of  the  upheaval.  I  should  like  to  know  what  powef 
the  British  throne  still  has  of  which  the  country  could 
deprive  it,  or  what  liberty  the  people  could  acquire 

113 


COURT  LIFE  FROM  WITHIN 

by  its  abolition  I  They  would  gain  as  little  as  if, 
by  a  popular  uprising,  the  citizens  of  London  killed 
the  lions  in  their  Zoo.  There  may  have  been  a  time 
when  lions  were  dangerous  in  England,  but  the  sight 
of  them  in  their  cages  now  can  only  give  a  pleasur- 
able holiday-shudder  of  awe — of  which,  I  think,  the 
nation  will  not  willingly  deprive  itself. 

There  was  then  beginning  the  great  industrial  and 
commercial  rivalry  between  England  and  Germany 
that  before  war  came  led  to  so  much  talk  of  it;  and 
this  rivalry  was  paralleled  by  an  antipathy  between 
the  Kaiser  and  King  Edward  that  was  as  frank  as 
the  enmity  between  the  nations.  Neither  sovereign 
made  any  disguise  of  it  even  when  they  were  to- 
gether, and  I  always  felt  that  it  did  them  both  good 
— for  a  strong  hostility  is  often  as  potent  as  a  strong 
affection  to  make  character. 

But  let  me  leave  the  sovereigns  for  a  moment  and 
turn  to  the  people.  The  English  impressed  and  baf- 
fled me  in  many  ways.  To  the  foreigner  of  Latin 
blood  and  temperament,  the  English  character  indeed 
presents  an  almost  insoluble  enigma.  Often  just 
when  we  feel  that  we  are  really  beginning  to  under- 
stand it,  we  are  faced  with  some  contradictory  trait 

114 


ENGLAND  AND  THE  ENGLISH 

that  completely  baffles  us.  Certainly  when  we  saw 
the  country,  apparently  seething  with  internal  dis- 
sensions, lay  aside  its  family  quarrels  and  present  a 
united  front  to  the  enemy,  we  realised  more  than 
ever  what  a  complex  thing  the  English  mentality 
is. 

I  must  confess  I  thought  that  it  would  be  hard  for 
England  to  rise  to  any  great  national  emergency,  not 
so  much  because  things  seemed  to  have  reached  the 
breaking  point  in  Ireland  or  because  her  colonies 
seemed  bound  to  her  more  by  self-interest  than  by 
real  loyalty,  but  on  account  of  the  devastating 
habits  of  ease  and  luxury  that  had  spread  like  a  dis- 
ease among  her  aristocracy.  But  now  we  know  that 
these  corrupting  influences  had  not  vitally  affected 
the  upper  classes.  Unlike  the  extravagances  of  an- 
cient Rome  that  had  eaten  to  the  heart  of  the  nation's 
energies,  England's  hurt  was  only  skin-deep. 

We  can  have  no  doubt  of  this  when  we  see  great 
ladies  facing  unfamiliar  hardships  and  risks  at  the 
battle  front,  others  dismantling  their  huge  country 
houses  and  transforming  them  into  hospitals  and 
others  freely  giving  their  whole  time  and  activities  to 
the  great  relief  organisations  for  the  war's  sufferers. 

115 


COURT  LIFE  FROM  WITHIN 

The  English  aristocracy's  ingrained  sense  of  responsi- 
bility to  the  nation  remains  untouched  by  all  its  lat- 
terly acquired  taste  for  luxury  and  over-indulgence 
in  sports. 

I  say  "latterly  acquired,"  because  it  is  undoubt- 
edly true  that  this  love  of  extravagance  has  grown 
enormously  during  the  last  decade  or  so.  From  the 
pomp  and  lavishness  displayed  nowadays  in  certain 
smart  establishments,  I  should  never  realise  that  I 
was  in  the  same  circle  whose  courtesy  and  simplicity 
used  to  delight  me  so  in  the  England  I  learned  to 
love  years  ago. 

It  was,  as  I  have  said,  as  a  young  married 
woman  that  I  had  my  first  experience  of  English  life. 
The  Comte  and  Comtesse  de  Paris,  my  husband's 
relatives,  had  been  exiled  from  France  and  had  been 
living  for  some  time  in  Tunbridge  Wells.  I  spent 
many  months  with  them  there,  and,  through  their 
large  circle  of  friends,  I  became  acquainted  witli  all 
sorts  and  conditions  of  people,  and  soon  found  my- 
self accepting  the  hospitality  of  these  newly-made 
friends.  When  I  made  it  clear  to  my  host  and 
hostess  that  I  desired  them  to  forget  that  I  was  an 
Infanta  and  to  be  treated  as  an  ordinary  individual, 

116 


ENGLAND  AND  THE  ENGLISH 

etiquette  was  banished,  and  I  was  able  to  do  as  I 
liked. 

Life  in  the  country  houses  always  pleased  me  best. 
In  those  days  it  was  the  custom  for  the  family  and 
guests  to  breakfast  together,  and  I  loved  the  infor- 
mality of  it  all  undisturbed  by  the  ministrations  of 
liveried  lackeys.  Often,  when  there  were  children 
in  the  house,  they  were  allowed  to  come  to  the  table 
too,  and  we  all  had  very  jolly  times  over  the  porridge. 

We  often  went  bicycling  for  the  whole  day,  carry- 
ing our  lunches  with  us  and  eating  them  in  some 
pleasant  grove  by  the  wayside.  Sometimes  we  went 
on  coaching  expeditions  and  lunched  in  some  old 
thatch-covered  inn.  When  my  children  were  little, 
I  seldom  missed  passing  some  time  in  England  each 
summer,  so  that  they  too  could  enjoy  the  freedom  of 
the  open-air  life. 

It  did  not  take  me  long  to  appreciate  the  charm  of 
the  English  home  and  country,  which  are  vastly  dif- 
ferent from  anything  abroad.  In  Spain,  people 
never  live  all  the  year  round  in  the  country  if  they 
can  possibly  avoid  it,  and  they  seldom  visit  their  es- 
tates unless  they  wish  practically  to  retire  from  the 
world.     On  the  rare  occasions  when  they  do  snatch 

117 


COURT  LIFE  FROM  WITHIN 

themselves  from  the  conventional  round  of  gaieties 
in  the  cities  or  the  big  watering  places,  they  shut 
themselves  up  in  their  big,  bare  castles,  receiving  no 
one  and  seldom  venturing  outside  their  own  proper- 
ties.    It  is  almost  a  time  of  penance. 

They  are  simply  incapable  of  understanding  the 
English  love  of  life  in  the  open  air,  with  its  many 
exhilarating  and  ingenious  pastimes  which  appeal  so 
strongly  to  me.  More  than  that,  they  are  inclined  to 
look  upon  such  taste  as  rather  ill-lired.  For  instance, 
only  the  humblest  Spaniard  would  dream  of  eating 
his  cold  lunch  by  the  roadside,  and  I  am  sure  that  the 
true  aristocrat  would  never  appreciate  the  chann  of 
seeking  out  some  picturesque  spot  and  having  tea 
from  a  tea-basket.  No  Spanish  lady  of  quality 
would  even  allow  herself  to  walk  hatless  in  her  own 
garden,  and  reclining  in  a  hammock  or  on  the  grass 
would  be  ruthlessly  banned  by  her  traditions  and  up- 
bringing. 

One  summer  day  Queen  Cristina  came  to  me  with 
a  look  of  sheer  consternation  on  her  face. 

"Eulalia,"  she  said,  "I  have  just  seen  an  appalling 
sight:  an  Englishwoman  lying  on  the  grass  in  the 
park." 

118 


ENGLAND  AND  THE  ENGLISH 

The  culprit  was  a  lady-in-waiting,  who  had  been 
brought  to  Spain  by  an  English  princess  visiting  the 
Court.  I  had  some  difficulty  in  convincing  the 
Queen  that  such  an  action  would  not  be  considered 
such  a  shocking  breach  of  etiquette  in  England  as  she 
imagined. 

In  France,  country  life  in  the  Smart  Set  is  more 
animated  than  in  Spain,  but  it  still  lacks  the  spon- 
taneity and  freedom  of  the  English  out-of-doors. 
The  chateaux  are  occasionally  thrown  open  to  visi- 
tors, but  the  guests  are  content  to  undergo  the  same 
routine  as  in  Paris — the  only  difference  being  that  it 
is  adapted  to  another  setting.  Of  course,  there  are 
hunting  meets,  and,  of  late  years,  garden  parties,  but 
much  of  the  entertaining  takes  place  indoors — din- 
ner-parties, theatrical  performances,  afternoon  recep- 
tions, etc.  The  French  have  not  yet  learned  how 
really  to  live  in  the  country,  to  relax  and  to  change 
their  entire  mode  of  thought  and  activities. 

There  is  hardly  a  county  in  England  that  I  am 
not  familiar  with.  I  have  spent  many  weeks  in 
Cornwall,  Devon  and  Yorkshire,  and  have  returned 
again  and  again  to  Brighton,  Tunbridge  Wells  and 
Richmond.     Curiously  enough,  during  one  visit  to 

119 


COURT  LIFE  FROM  WITHIN 

Richmond  I  received  a  message  from  the  Duchess  of 
Teck  that  lier  daughter,  then  Princess  of  Wales,  had 
just  given  birth  to  her  first  boy.  I  went  at  once  to 
W^hite  Lodge  to  offer  my  congratulations,  and  I 
fancy  that  I  was  the  first,  outside  the  immediate 
family,  to  hold  the  future  Prince  of  Wales  in  my 
arms. 

What  to  me  is  convincing  proof  of  the  change  in 
latter  years  from  simplicity  to  lavish  display  is  the 
difference  in  the  way  of  living  I  have  remarked 
amongst  many  of  my  friends.  Each  time  I  have 
visited  England  recently  I  have  been  struck  with  this. 

One  thing  that  used  to  delight  me  so  was  the  in- 
formality of  the  English  tea.  It  was  invariably 
served  Scins  ccrcmonie  in  the  drawing-room.  After 
the  servants  had  brought  it  in  they  retired  and  left 
us  to  our  own  devices.  Neighbours  frequently 
dropped  in  without  warning,  and  often,  as  we 
gathered  round  a  big  blazing  fire  and  ate  those  won- 
derful home-made  delicacies  unknown  to  Continen- 
tals, there  was  a  charming  feeling  of  expansiveness 
and  intimacy  that  we  never  had  at  other  times  of 
the  day. 

Of  late  years  T  have  noticed  that  the  custom  has 
120 


Courtesy  of  Collier's 

King  George  V,   the   Late  King  Edward   VII  and 
THE  Prince   of  Wales 


ENGLAND  AND  THE  ENGLISH 

changed.  When  you  are  invited  to  tea,  you  find 
your  place  set  at  a  table  loaded  with  expensive  flow- 
ers and  accessories  from  the  chic  caterer.  Footmen 
are  in  constant  attendance  and  the  charm  of  infor- 
mality has  entirely  gone. 

Friends  of  mine  who  used  to  be  content  to  dine 
in  some  simple  tea-gown  now  wear  the  latest  Paris 
creations  and  their  jewels — and  this  every  evening. 
Although  the  Frenchwoman  may  still  think  that  the 
Englishwoman's  taste  in  dress  is  far  beneath  her  own 
standard,  she  would  have  to  admit,  if  she  were  in- 
vited to  some  fashionable  house-party,  that  the  Eng- 
lishwoman of  means  has  far  eclipsed  her  in  the  mat- 
ter of  frequent  change.  She  would  see  the  hostess 
and  guests  appear  in  tweed  suits  and  stout  boots  for 
their  morning  constitutional  and  breakfast,  then  re- 
appear in  white  flannels  for  their  afternoon  game  of 
tennis  or  boating.  She  would  wonder  how,  in  the 
thick  of  sports  and  entertainment,  these  energetic 
women  found  time  to  put  on  some  clinging  creation 
for  tea  which  would  later  be  laid  aside  for  the  decol- 
lete dinner-gown. 

Of  course,  these  departures  from  the  simple  tastes 
of  twenty  years  ago  seem  harmless  enough  in  them- 

121 


COURT  LIFE  FROM  WITHIN 

selves,  but  they  are  surely  indications  of  a  constantly 
growing  love  of  lavishness  in  the  whole  social  routine. 
I  am  sorry  to  say  tliat  the  fine  old-time  courtesies  of 
the  English  gentry  seem  to  have  suffered  by  these 
more  luxurious  habits  of  living.  In  many  smart  cir- 
cles, polished  manners  seem  to  have  become  as  super- 
annuated as  crinolines  and  stage  coaches. 

Whatever  may  be  the  faults  of  the  English  land- 
lord-system— faults  inherited  from  the  centuries — 
the  system  used  to  work  excellently  whenever  the 
lord  of  the  castle  or  manor-house  lived  up  to  his  re- 
sponsibilities. In  spite  of  its  touch  of  paternalism, 
there  was  something  impressive  about  the  white- 
haired  earl  inspecting  his  broad  acres,  bowing  tenants 
standing  aside  to  let  his  carriage  pass,  and  something 
altogether  touching  about  his  lady  visiting  the  cot- 
tagers, her  footman — far  haughtier  in  mien  than  she 
— bearing  gifts  of  food  and  warm  clothing.  As  long 
as  the  villagers  were  well  cared  for,  I  suppose  they 
never  questioned  whether  it  was  right  for  their  mas- 
ter to  have  a  mansion  while  they  had  to  toil  so  liard 
to  keep  their  humble  thatched  roof  over  their  heads. 
But  when  the  young  lord  took  to  dissipating  the  fam- 
ily fortunes  on  tlie  turf,  when  he  married  some  foot- 

122 


ENGLAND  AND  THE  ENGLISH 

light  favourite — in  other  words,  when  he  began  to 
neglect  the  responsibilities  of  his  race — that,  prob- 
ably, was  the  beginning  of  their  doubt  in  the  justice 
of  the  English  social  order.  Then  they  forgot  to 
curtsy  whenever  the  young  lord  and  his  bride  motored 
through  the  village,  and  they  began  to  listen  to  the 
itinerant  labour  agitator  at  the  tavern. 

Of  course,  the  democratic  spirit  that  is  spreading 
all  over  the  world  has  been  at  work  in  England  for 
years,  undermining  rigid  caste  distinctions  and  dif- 
ferences, but  I  feel  that  it  could  not  have  grown  so 
quickly  nor  expressed  itself  in  just  such  forms  as  it 
has,  if  the  extravagance  and  irresponsibility  of  many 
of  the  rich  and  powerful  had  not  paved  the  way 
for  it.  Destroy  respect  and  you  destroy  docility. 
There  is  no  doubt  that  the  English  lower  classes,  in 
their  first  efforts  toward  democracy  and  equality, 
have  made  some  pretty  ludicrous  mistakes.  Instead 
of  copying  the  fine  qualities  of  the  aristocracy,  they 
have,  more  frequently  than  not,  managed  to  imitate 
their  shortcomings  and  limitations.  I  remember 
hearing  that  the  valet  of  some  prince  insisted  on  hav- 
ing a  valet  for  himself  I  I  know  that  French  maids, 
whom  I  have  taken  to  England,  have  had  their  heads 

123 


COURT  LIFE  FROM  WITHIN 

turned  h\  tlic  amazing  etiquette  of  the  servants'  hall 
— all  unquestionably  due  to  the  servants'  desire  to 
])attern  their  masters. 

The  maid  of  the  Infanta  is  a  great  person,  and  she 
soon  found  that  she  could  take  precedence  over  all 
the  others.  She  had  to  be  elegantly  dressed.  In- 
deed, whenever  I  go  to  England,  I  always  remark 
that  my  maid  has  double  the  luggage  she  requires 
when  I  take  her  to  other  countries.  Once  I  dis- 
covered that  the  English  servants'  attitude  toward 
their  work  had  so  affected  one  maid  that  she  was 
almost  completely  spoilt.  For  instance,  after  a  visit 
to  England  on  which  she  had  accompanied  me,  this 
maid  broke  down  and  sobbed  when  I  told  her  to  light 
a  fire. 

"I  can't,  I  can't,"  she  said,  piteously,  with  tears 
streaming  down  her  face. 

"But  for  }  ears  you  have  been  accustomed  to  light 
fires  for  me,"  I  said.  "What  has  happened  to  make 
it  such  a  terrible  thing  to  light  one  now?" 

She  explained  that  she  had  learnt  in  England  that 
it  was  beneath  the  dignity  ot  a  lady's-maid  to  do 
menial  work. 

A  Spanish  maid  from  Seville  had  more  sense,  and 

1^4 


ENGLAND  AND  THE  ENGLISH 

amused  me  immensely  by  telling  me  that  the  English 
servants  had  told  her  that  it  was  exceedingly  smart 
to  walk  out  on  Sunday  afternoons  with  a  soldier,  and 
they  had  added  that  if  she  desired  to  show  herself 
with  a  Guardsman,  he  would  expect  to  be  paid. 

"Fancy  my  paying  a  soldier  to  walk  out  with  me  I" 
she  said,  laughing. 

However,  it  is  not  unreasonable  to  hope  that  the 
war,  which  has  already  done  so  much  toward  rous- 
ing the  rich  from  their  lethargy  of  extravagance  and 
neglect  of  responsibilities  to  the  most  praiseworthy 
usefulness,  will  help  correct  the  lower  class  concep- 
tion of  equality.  As  I  have  already  said,  no  char- 
acter is  so  full  of  surprises  as  the  English — so  capable 
of  appearing  to  be  one  thing  while  underneath  it  is 
the  exact  opposite.  Can  this  be  what  people  of  other 
nationalities  mean  when  they  speak  of  English  hy- 
pocrisy? It  is  rather  an  innate  reserve  which  the 
foreigner  finds  great  difficulty  in  penetrating.  It 
comes,  no  doubt,  from  the  Englishman's  veneration 
for  tradition,  and  for  centuries  he  has  been  schooled 
to  show  no  emotion.  That  is  often  why  he  is  gup- 
posed  to  be  either  stupid  or  inattentive.  As  a  mat- 
ter of  fact,  this  very  exterior  gives  him  the  great  ad- 

125 


COURT  LIFE  FROM  WITHIN 

vantage  of  being  able  to  size  up  a  situation  without 
betraying  either  the  process  or  his  conclusions. 

The  proof  of  what  I  say  is  the  Englishman's  un- 
questioned superiority  in  diplomacy.  People  who 
have  no  experience  of  cosmopolitan  society  seem  to 
think  that  the  successful  diplomat  must  be  a  detective 
of  the  popular  novel  type:  an  astute  if  somewhat 
unscrupulous  politician  and  a  polished  lady's  man  all 
rolled  into  one.  To  be  sure,  the  representatives  of 
certain  countries  often  do  their  best  to  realise  just 
such  an  ideal,  but,  although  this  type  may  succeed 
in  carrying  some  of  their  machinations  to  a  conclu- 
sion satisfactory  to  themselves,  they  almost  never  ac- 
complish anything  really  worth  while  for  their  gov- 
ernments. Most  of  the  English  diplomats  I  have 
known  on  the  Continent  give  the  impression  of  being 
serenely  indifferent  to  any  intrigues  that  may  be 
going  on  around  them.  It  has  often  amused  me  to 
watch  them  at  dinner-parties.  Unlike  certain  rep- 
resentatives of  other  powers,  they  never  go  out  of 
their  way  to  make  themselves  agreeable  to  ladies. 
I  have  never  seen  them  pay  special  attention  to  the 
wives  of  powerful  statesmen  for  the  purposes  of  their 
profession — indeed,  the}-  seem  to  scorn  these  back- 

126 


ENGLAND  AND  THE  ENGLISH 

door  methods.  Perhaps,  it  is  because  they  know  very 
well  that  real  diplomacy  is  built  on  more  solid  foun- 
dations than  on  the  gleanings  of  drawing-room  con- 
versations or  the  chance  confidences  of  indiscreet 
women. 

And  they  are  right  in  this,  for  the  whole  tradition 
of  diplomacy  in  England  is  different  from  that  of  any 
great  power.  She  has  not  changed  her  tactics  for 
centuries. 

England  has  established  such  a  prestige  among 
nations  that  she  is  able  to  transact  her  international 
affairs  in  London,  and  has  at  her  disposal  the  brains 
of  her  best  statesmen.  King  Edward,  in  bringing 
about  the  entente  cordiale^  thus  probably  initiated 
the  French  Government  into  this  way  of  conducting 
its  international  affairs,  for  of  late  years  French 
diplomacy  has  steadily  improved. 

King  Edward  himself  possessed  in  a  high  degree 
those  national  qualities  that  make  the  English  such 
good  diplomats.  Not  only  in  the  conduct  of  nations, 
but  in  society,  his  self-possession  and  tact  were  un- 
failing. They  certainly  did  not  fail  him  on  one  oc- 
cason  when  I  saw  him  placed  in  a  very  comical  and 
embarrassing  situation.     We  were  both  at  a  dinner- 

127 


COURT  LIFE  FROM  WITHIN 

party  in  a  great  London  house,  and  among  the  guests 
was  a  I;id\  who  bore  an  historic  ItaHan  title.  She 
was  English  by  birth,  and  before  her  marriage  had 
been  famous  in  London  society  for  her  great  beauty 
and  her  charm  of  manner.  A  wealthy  Jew,  who 
shall  be  disguised  under  the  name  of  Abraham,  was 
madly  in  love  with  her,  and  her  friends,  including 
King  Edward,  saw  his  growing  infatuation  with  con- 
cern. 

"Don't  you  marry  tliat  man,"  was  the  advice  given 
her,  peremptorily  but  good-naturedly,  by  King  Ed- 
ward. 

But  marry  him  she  did;  not,  however,  before  he 
had  been  to  Italy  and  bought  the  palace  and  the  pom- 
pous title  of  an  impoverished  Florentine  noble.  Of 
this  fact  the  king  was  unaware,  and  when  the  lady 
was  presented  to  him  at  the  dinner-table  as  the  Mar- 
chesa  di  X.,  he  smiled  and  said:  "I  am  delighted 
to  meet  you  again  as  the  Marchesa  di  X.,  and  so 
thankful  you  didn't  marry  that  awful  Abraham." 

A  few  moments  later,  the  king  observed  that  the 
"awful  Abraham"  was  standing  close  by  and  had 
heard  the  unfortunate  remark.     Without  turning  a 

128 


ENGLAND  AND  THE  ENGLISH 

hair,  he  smiled  at  him  and  congratulated  him  heartily 
upon  his  marriage. 

King  Edward  was  the  first  member  of  the  English- 
Royal  Family  that  I  met.  My  acquaintance  with 
him  started  in  Madrid  when,  as  Prince  of  Wales,  he 
came  with  his  brother,  the  Duke  of  Connaught,  one 
of  the  most  charming  princes  in  Europe,  to  be  present 
at  the  festivities  given  in  honour  of  the  marriage  of 
my  brother. 

Later  I  stayed  with  him  and  Queen  Alexandra  at 
Sandringham.  One  of  the  first  things  to  impress  me 
there  was  the  king's  extreme  punctuality.  Some- 
body used  always  to  come  and  warn  me  ten  minutes 
before  meal-times  that  I  must  not  keep  him  waiting. 
For  some  unknown  reason,  he  had  all  the  clocks  in 
the  house  set  half-an-hour  in  advance  of  the  right 
time,  and  one  of  the  first  things  that  guests  at  Sand- 
ringham learnt  was  the  existence  of  this  curious  prac- 
tice. The  king  liked  to  be  amused,  and,  as  he  had  a 
taste  for  the  Gallic  turn  of  wit  that  makes  Latin  races 
such  good  raconteurs^  there  were  always  one  or  two 
foreigners  about  who,  although  they  did  not  wear  the 
cap  and  bells  which  would  have  defined  their  func- 

129 


COURT  LIFE  FROM  WITHIN 

tions  in  an  earlier  age,  played  the  ])art  of  Court  jester 
admirably,  and  enlivened  conversation  at  the  dinner- 
table  with  praiseworthy  persistence. 

The  Princess  Louise,  now  Duchess  of  Argyle,  pos- 
sesses a  share  of  the  talent  which  distinguished  her 
brother  and  their  sister,  the  Empress  Frederick.  I 
spent  a  very  agreeable  time  with  her  in  the  Isle  of 
Wight,  when  I  went  to  England  for  the  first  time. 
We  had  many  cosy  times  together,  leaving  our  hus- 
bands to  amuse  each  other,  and  our  mutual  interest 
in  art  and  literature  naturally  drew  us  together. 

Undoubtedly,  one  of  the  cleverest  and  most  charm- 
ing figures  in  the  royal  circle  is  the  Duchess  of  Con- 
naught.  Her  husband  would,  I  am  certain,  be  the 
first  to  admit  that  his  success  in  creating  for  him.self 
the  special  place  he  holds  in  English  life  and  in  the 
life  of  the  British  Empire  is  largely  due  to  the 
Duchess's  lo}al  help  and  wise  advice.  In  spite  of 
her  German  upbringing,  she  has  given  herself  whole- 
heartedly to  the  country  of  her  adoption,  and  her 
daughters,  the  Crown  Princess  of  Sweden  and  Prin- 
cess Patricia,  are  delightful  and  typically  English 
girls. 

The  Russian  princess,  known  best  in  England  as 
130 


ENGLAND  AND  THE  ENGLISH 

the  Duchess  of  Edinburgh  and  now  Duchess  of  Co- 
burg,  was  unable  to  adapt  herself  to  life  in  a  strange 
country.  It  is  a  canon  of  Court  etiquette  that  im- 
perial personages  take  precedence  of  royal  person- 
ages, and  consequently  it  was  held  in  Russia  that  the 
Duchess  of  Edinburgh,  being  the  daughter  of  the  Em- 
peror of  Russia,  should  take  precedence  of  the  Prin- 
cess of  Wales,  who  was  merely  the  daughter  of  a 
king.  Queen  Alexandra  is  so  amiable  that  I  believe 
that  she  would  have  contentedly  allowed  the  duchess 
and  anybody  else  who  wanted  to  do  so  to  pass  before 
her;  but  obviously  the  wife  of  the  heir  to  the  throne 
could  not  be  permitted  to  take  any  place  but  the  first 
after  the  Sovereign.  What  was  to  be  done'?  Queen 
Victoria  solved  the  difficulty  very  cleverly.  She 
caused  herself  to  be  proclaimed  Empress  of  India, 
and  the  claim  put  forward  by  the  duchess  immedi- 
ately fell  to  the  ground.  The  assumption  of  im- 
perial rank  by  the  Queen  was  undoubtedly  dictated 
by  political  considerations,  but  the  solution  of  the 
difficulty,  created  by  the  conservatism  of  Court  eti- 
quette, was  an  argument  which  weighed  with  her 
when  she  took  the  decisive  step. 

In  no  country  is  the  veneration  of  royalty  carried 
131 


COURT  LIFE  FROM  WITHIN 

to  greater  lengths  than  in  Enghmd.  That  is  doubt- 
less why  King  Edward's  many  American  and  Jewish 
friends  were  so  readily  received  by  the  smart  set,  al- 
though these  new-comers  brought  with  them  a  love 
of  lavishness  and  display  that  went  counter  to  the 
taste  and  tradition  of  the  English  7iohlesse.  When 
society  opened  its  doors  to  these  people  of  vast  wealth 
and  luxurious  habits,  and  accepted  their  prodigal 
entertainments,  it  is  hardly  surprising  that  their  ex- 
ample became  infectious.  Let  us  hope  that  Eng- 
land's ingrained  respect  for  royalty  will  induce  the 
aristocracy  to  copy  the  simplicity  and  dignity  of  King 
George's  and  Queen  Mary's  life,  and  that  this  influ- 
ence will  aid  in  completely  reviving  the  old-time 
ideals  of  courtesy  and  good-breeding. 

As  I  have  already  said,  this  revival  has  already 
begun.  The  war,  which  has  had  the  effect  of  rous- 
ing the  rich  from  their  over-indulgence  in  luxury 
and  sports,  will  no  doubt  do  much  toward  leavening 
the  attitude  of  the  classes  toward  each  other.  Surely, 
since  they  have  been  dra\\n  rogetlur  in  a  spontaneous 
movement  of  patriotism  in  the  face  of  the  enemy, 
they  will  lose  mucli  of  tlicir  common  mistrust  and 
misunderstanding   and   the   real   democracy   of   the 

132 


ENGLAND  AND  THE  ENGLISH 

spirit — not  the  sham  equality  of  externals — will  have 
freer  leeway.  More  than  that,  I  dare  hope  that  the 
war,  which  has  not  only  forced  different  classes  but 
different  nations  to  stand  side  by  side,  will  break 
down  their  insular  habit  of  thought  which  sees  no 
good  in  foreign  life  and  customs. 


133 


CHAPTER  VII 
THE  KAISER  AND  HIS  COURT 

After  hearing  King  Edward's  opinion  of  his 
nephew,  I  was  eager  to  meet  the  Kaiser.  I  was  never 
more  eager  to  meet  any  sovereign.  And  there  was 
none  who  ever  made  such  an  impression  on  me.  One 
felt  at  once  the  vibration  of  a  strong  personality,  an 
incessantly  active  mind,  a  dynamic  nervous  energy, 
a  Latin  temperament  intellectual  and  gay.  He  has 
the  kind  of  hard  grey-blue  eye  that  is  usually  called 
piercing.  And  he  uses  it,  I  think,  with  some  knowl- 
edge of  its  effect  when  he  wishes  to  be  disconcerting. 
But  the  wrinkles  on  his  face  come  from  smiling,  not 
from  scowls;  and  in  his  private  life  he  is  altogether 
charming  and  unaffected  and  delightful. 

When  I  first  visited  at  the  Schloss,  in  Berlin,  I 
was  struck  by  the  perfect  household  management.  I 
was  told  that  the  Kaiser  personally  supervised  all  the 
details  of  the  establishment.  The  next  time  I  was 
there,  I  found  on  my  arrival  a  little  library  of  my 
favourite  authors  waiting  in  the  apartnient  that  had 

134 


THE  KAISER  AND  HIS  COURT 

been  prepared  for  me;  and  I  discovered  that  the 
Kaiser  had  selected  and  provided  the  books.  The 
charming  thoughtfulness  of  the  attention  is  as  char- 
acteristic of  him  as  the  thoroughness  of  the  superin- 
tendence. He  seems  to  be  as  thorough  in  all  he  does. 
His  activities  are,  of  course,  enormous.  His  mind 
appears  untiring.  He  accomplishes  an  incredible 
amount  of  routine  labour  and  comes  to  his  recreation 
eager  and  not  fagged. 

The  quality  that  makes  him  most  misunderstood, 
both  in  Germany  and  abroad,  is  his  religiosity.  He 
has  an  intimate  sense  of  the  constant  direction  of  a 
personal  God — how  intimate  no  one  will  believe  who 
has  not  seen  the  expression  of  his  face  when  he 
is  silently  praying.  Since  he  believes  that  God  di- 
rects every  incident  of  the  life  of  the  world,  he  be- 
lieves that  he  has  been  divinely  appointed  to  rule  over 
Germany,  as  every  one  else  has  been  divinely  ap- 
pointed to  the  station  he  occupies  and  the  work  he 
has  to  do.  He  rules,  therefore,  under  God,  respon- 
sible only  to  God,  and  going  chiefly  to  prayer  for 
direction.  This  conviction  is  so  profound  and  mov- 
ing in  him  that  I  believe  if  he  had  not  been  born  a 
king,  he  would  have  become  a  religious  leader  whose 

135 


COURT  LIFE  FROM  WITHIN 

energy  would  have  made  him  as  compelling  as  one 
of  the  old  prophets.  And  it  is  a  conviction  that  gov- 
erns him  in  the  most  unexpected  ways.  For  ex- 
ample, he  has  otten  spoken  publicly  of  the  responsi- 
bility of  the  ruler  who  involves  his  people  in  a  war 
in  which  so  many  men  may  be  killed,  when  he  can- 
not be  sure  that  their  consciences  will  be  in  a  state  to 
meet  death. 

Hitherto  the  intelligence  of  his  rule  in  many  direc- 
tions has  been  beyond  all  question.  The  immense  in- 
dustrial expansion  of  the  country  has  not  been  made 
at  the  expense  of  tlie  lower  classes.  During  the  Boer 
War  a  shameful  percentage  of  the  recruits  in  Eng- 
land had  to  be  rejected  as  physically  unfit  for  serv- 
ice; the  recruits  for  the  German  army  have  always 
been  healthy.  The  foundations  of  the  nation  have 
not  been  rotted  away  by  poverty  and  exploitation. 
It  has  not  been  wealth  that  has  ruled  here. 

The  German  royal  family  is  of  the  blood  of  the 
nation;  it  always  had  the  picturesque  qualities  of 
military  leadership;  and  it  represented,  even  more 
than  in  England,  the  magnificence  of  national  suc- 
cess and  the  new  unity  of  German  patriotism.  Al- 
though the  growth  of  the  Socialist  party  has  gone  on 

136 


THE  KAISER  AND  HIS  COURT 

surely,  inside  these  very  evident  aspects  of  loyalty, 
it  would  seem  that  so  long  as  Germany  had  to  be 
organised  on  a  war  basis  it  would  accept  a  dictator- 
ship that  is  intelligent.  Only  when  the  Throne  be- 
came stupid,  the  trouble  would  begin. 

Meanwhile,  the  German  Emperor  was  the  boast 
and  the  model  of  certain  sections  of  modern  royalty. 
Many  of  the  young  kings  who  should  be  attending  to 
the  arts  of  peace  were  imagining  themselves  little 
"War  Lords"  and  strutting  about  in  uniforms  that 
made  them  ridiculous.  The  lesser  royalties  saw 
themselves  as  divinely  ordained  to  their  conspicuous 
idleness  as  he  to  his  work.  Those  qualities  in  the 
Kaiser  which  King  Edward  quarrelled  with — because 
they  appeared  mediaeval  to  a  man  of  his  type  of  mind 
— were  parodied  in  imitation  by  princelings  who  had 
not  the  Kaiser's  brains  and  force  of  personality.  I 
once  had  such  a  sovereign  send  an  aide  to  order  me 
to  put  down  my  parasol  in  a  royal  procession,  for  no 
reason  except  to  exercise  a  petty  authority;  and  I 
started  a  warm  enmity  by  sending  back  word,  through 
the  aide,  that  the  control  of  my  parasol  was  not 
within  the  power  of  the  Crown. 

I  think  it  was  these  imitations  of  the  Kaiser  that 

137 


COURT  LIFE  FROM  WITHIN 

exasperated  King  Edward  more  dian  their  original. 
The  Kaiser's  antipathy  to  King  Edward  was  another 
matter.  As  the  father  of  his  people,  the  German 
Emperor  sets  an  example  of  personal  virtue  and  aus- 
terity such  as  a  parent  might  set  his  sons;  and  King 
Edward  enjoyed  his  life  to  the  full.  The  King 
practised  all  the  diplomacies  of  silence;  the  Kaiser 
always  had  an  impulsiveness  in  private  and  public 
utterance  that  was  the  despair  of  his  ministers.  The 
two  men  were  personally  antipathetical.  They  mis- 
understood each  other  and  underrated  each  other. 
But,  as  I  have  said  before,  they  did  each  other  a  lot 
of  good. 

When  to-day  I  think  of  William  II.,  I  always  re- 
call a  scene  which  seemed  symbolical  of  the  German 
Sovereign  and  his  people. 

A  great  crowd  filled  an  immense  hall  of  the  grey 
castle  which  the  past  has  left  in  the  heart  of  modern 
Berlin.  People  of  every  rank  stood  shoulder  to 
shoulder,  for  it  was  the  one  day  of  the  year  when 
the  Imperial  Court  sets  courage  and  faithful  service 
before  birth  and  noble  ancestry,  the  day  of  the 
Ordensfcst. 

I  was  quite  young  and  I  felt  joyous  and  happy  as 

138 


I     %%''i 


THE  KAISER  AND  HIS  COURT 

I  passed  up  the  hall  in  the  Imperial  procession,  with 
a  page  bearing  my  long  manteau  de  cour.  And  each 
time  that  I  turned  from  side  to  side  to  bow  to  the 
people,  I  caught  a  glimpse  of  the  Kaiser  at  the  head 
of  the  procession,  a  silver  figure,  like  Lohengrin,  on 
whose  cuirass  and  helmet  the  light  flashed.  Before 
him  walked  four  heralds  in  medijEval  dress,  sounding 
silver  trumpets,  and  when  he  reached  the  dais  and 
stood  before  the  throne,  looking  down  the  castle  hall, 
I  saw  in  his  steel-blue  eyes  that  look  of  exaltation 
which  his  profound  and  unshakable  belief  in  the  di- 
vinity of  kings  gives  him. 

Was  I  a  princess  born  in  a  democratic  age?  Or 
was  I  living  in  the  age  of  chivalry,  or  at  the  vanished 
Court  of  Versailles?  Before  me,  as  I  went  to  the 
dais,  stood  an  Emperor  as  unshaken  in  the  belief 
that  he  possessed  godlike  qualities  as  Charlemagne 
when  a  Pope  set  the  unexpected  crown  upon  his  brow, 
or,  as  the  Roi  Soleil,  unflattered  by  worship  he  be- 
lieved to  be  his  due.  It  seemed  that  I  should  have 
been  one  of  those  Infantas  of  Velasquez  in  a  brocade 
dress  and  fluttering  a  little  fan. 

The  impression  the  Kaiser  made  on  me  that  morn- 
ing of  the  Or  dens  jest  was  not  new,  though  it  came 

139 


COURT  LIFE  FROM  WITHIN 

with  fresh,  ahnost  startling,  force.  I  had  known 
liim  years  before  as  Prince  Wilhelm — a  simple  and 
unaffected  }outh.  Then  he  became  Crown  Prince, 
and  I  noted  a  change.  His  manner  became  more 
imperious,  less  spontaneous.  I  felt  that  he  was 
schooling  himself,  holding  himself  in  check,  con- 
scious of  the  burden  of  coming  responsibilities,  fear- 
ing, yet  longing  for,  the  golden  irksomeness  of  the 
Imperial  crown.  Since  he  has  ascended  the  throne, 
I  have  never  met  him  without  realising  that  he  is 
dominated  by  the  belief  that  he  is  an  instrument  in 
the  hands  of  the  Almight}',  divinely  appointed  to 
reign. 

As  he  conferred  orders  and  decorations  on  the 
stream  of  men  who  humbly  approached  his  throne  at 
the  Ordcnsfest^  I  could  see  from  their  reverence  and 
from  the  look  of  awe  on  their  faces  that  his  manner, 
his  regal  pose,  his  glance,  had  forced  them  to  accept 
his  own  belief  in  the  majesty  and  righteousness  of 
kingship.  But  when  w^e  had  passed  to  the  great 
banqueting-hall  he  forgot  for  a  moment  to  be  godlike, 
and  became  the  unpretentious  Prince  Wilhelm  of 
the  past. 

We  sat  at  a  table  on  a  dais,  looking  down  on  the 
140 


THE  KAISER  AND  HIS  COURT 

great  company  invited  to  enjoy  the  Emperor's  hos- 
pitality, and  we  were  served  by  young  nobles.  The 
page  who  had  carried  my  train — a  handsome  boy 
who  looked  about  twenty — stood  behind  my  chair 
and  handed  dishes  or  filled  my  glass  with  the  skill  of 
a  practised  footman.  It  was  the  first  time  that  a 
foreign  princess  had  been  present  at  the  Ordensfest, 
and  I  had  received  a  hint  that  it  was  customary  to 
send  the  page  who  served  one  a  present  the  following 
day,  and  I  had  learnt  that  there  was  an  unwritten 
law  that  the  present  should  be  a  watch,  I  was  sit- 
ting next  the  Emperor  and  suddenly  he  turned  to  my 
page  with  an  almost  roguish  smile. 

"You  are  a  happy  boy,"  he  said,  "to  have  the 
privilege  to  serve  the  beautiful  Infanta."  Sover- 
eigns always  know  how  to  flatter.  "What  present 
would  you  like  her  to  give  you^" 

"Sire,"  answered  the  page,  "there  is  nothing  I 
should  like  Her  Royal  Highness  to  give  me  so  much 
as  the  flower  that  caresses  her  neck." 

It  was  a  courtly  and  charming  reply. 

"You  must  give  it  him,"  said  the  Emperor  gaily, 
and  of  course  I  did. 

And  the  page  kept  the  flower. 
141 


COl^RT  LIFE  FROM  WITHIN 

"The  deity  has  come  down  from  its  pedestal,"  I 
said  to  the  Emperor,  when  I  had  given  the  boy  the 
flower,  and  we  both  huighed. 

That  was  a  little  incident  that  relieved  the  tedium 
of  a  visit  to  the  Schloss  at  Berlin;  for,  in  spite  of  the 
courtesies  of  host  and  hostess,  I  felt  then,  as  I  do  in 
all  palaces,  that  I  was  in  a  prison.  Indeed,  to  me 
the  palace  life  is  so  irksome  that  when  I  hear  the 
sentry  pacing  up  and  down  outside  my  windows,  I 
always  feel  that  he  is  there  to  prevent  me  from  going 
out  more  than  to  prevent  other  people  from  coming 
in.  Whenever  I  have  stayed  with  the  Kaiser  and 
Kaiserin  I  have  been  given  a  beautiful  suite  of  rooms; 
but  a  prison  is  still  a  prison,  however  thick  the  gild- 
ing on  the  bars.  Everything  one  does  or  says  is 
noticed  and  talked  about,  and  criticised  and  spread 
abroad.  All  day  long  my  Spanish  lady-in-waiting 
sat  in  an  ante-chamber  with  the  German  lady-in- 
waiting  and  the  German  chamberlain  appointed  to 
attend  me.  It  was  intolerable  to  diink  that  these 
three  persons  were  sitting  there  with  notliing  what- 
ever to  do  l)ur  to  speculate  on  what  I  should  take 
it  into  my  head  to  do  next  and  to  exchange  Court 
gossip.     In  an  outer  chanilKT  was  another  group  of 

142 


THE  KAISER  AND  HIS  COURT 

idlers,  servants  whose  chief  duty  was  to  conduct  me 
processionally  from  one  part  of  the  castle  to  an- 
other. 

Madame  la  Princesse  appears  in  the  antechamber, 
and  the  ladies  make  profound  curtsies  and  the  gen- 
tlemen profound  bows.  She  smiles — princesses 
must  always  appear  to  be  radiantly  happy — and  she 
tries  to  find  something  agreeable  to  say  to  each,  and 
not  to  make  bad  blood  by  being  more  agreeable  to 
one  than  to  another.  She  announces  her  desire  to 
go  to  the  Kaiserin's  apartments.  The  chamberlain 
passes  on  that  interesting  information  to  the  footman 
in  the  outer  ante-chamber.  A  procession  is  formed, 
and  Madame  la  Princesse  is  conducted,  with  the 
pomp  of  a  bishop  entering  a  cathedral  to  say  Mass, 
to  the  other  side  of  the  castle.  The  procession  passes 
through  the  Kaiserin's  ante-chamber,  where  another 
army  of  servants  is  idling,  and  the  ladies-in-waiting 
who  make  profound  curtsies  and  the  gentlemen-in- 
waiting  who  make  profound  bows  expect  Madame 
la  Princesse  to  smile  and  to  repeat  the  gracious  re- 
marks about  the  state  of  the  weather  she  has  already 
made  to  the  members  of  her  own  suite.  The  doors 
of  the  Kaiserin's  apartments  are  thrown  open  with 

143 


COURT  LIFE  FROM  WITHIN 

becoming  reverence,  and  Madame  la  Princesse  dis- 
appears, leaving  her  suite  to  gossip  with  the  Kaiser- 
in's,  and  probably  to  speculate  on  the  nature  of  the 
royal  conversation  across  the  sacred  threshold  they 
may  not  pass  unless  bidden.  A  quarter  of  an  hour 
elapses,  and  Madame  la  Princesse  emerges,  smiles  at 
the  bowing  courtiers  and  curtsying  ladies,  and,  feel- 
ing more  like  an  idol  than  a  human  being,  is  sol- 
emnly conducted  back  and  enshrined  in  her  own 
apartments. 

The  etiquette  of  Versailles  in  the  time  of  Louis 
XVI.  could  hardly  be  more  exasperating  to  a  modern 
woman  than  that  of  Berlin  in  the  twentieth  century. 
Before  luncheon  and  dinner  processions  converge 
from  all  parts  of  the  castle,  conducting  members  of 
the  Imperial  family  and  royal  guests  to  the  drawing- 
room. 

"The  Kaiser  will  be  in  the  drawing-room  in  ten 
minutes,"  was  the  regular  warning  I  used  to  receive 
from  a  lady-in-waiting,  fearful  that  I  should  be  late, 
and  knowing  the  value  the  Kaiser  sets  on  punctuality. 
In  point  of  fact,  I  never  was  late,  and,  indeed,  punc- 
tuality almost  ceases  to  be  a  virtue  at  the  Schloss, 
where  one  lives  under  a  hard-and-fast  code  of  rules. 

144 


THE  KAISER  AND  HIS  COURT 

On  the  way  from  the  drawing-room  to  the  dining- 
room  the  Kaiser  and  Kaiserin  and  their  guests  pass 
through  the  apartment  in  which  the  ladies  and  gen- 
tlemen in  attendance  have  been  discarded.  They 
stand  in  a  great  circle,  and  it  is  the  invariable  custom 
to  make  the  tour  of  the  circle  with  the  usual  smile 
and  the  usual  banal  remarks.  That  duty  performed, 
the  royal  personages  go  into  the  dining-room,  and  the 
suites  retire  to  eat  in  another  room.  In  Madrid  the 
persons  in  attendance  on  the  royal  family  dine  with 
them.  When  I  first  went  to  Berlin  the  Kaiser's  chil- 
dren were  young,  and,  although  they  lunched  with 
us,  they  were  not  permitted  to  speak  unless  first 
spoken  to.  After  the  meal  the  royal  party  returns 
to  the  drawing-room,  but  it  must  not  be  thought  that 
when  alone  royal  persons  unbend  and  behave  natur- 
ally. The  daily  discipline  of  relentless  etiquette  has 
its  effect  on  them;  they  cannot  forget  that  they  are 
royal,  and  therefore  obliged  to  mask  their  feelings 
more  rigorously  than  is  necessary  for  ordinary  peo- 
ple; indeed,  most  princesses  I  know  are  reduced  by 
this  inexorable  discipline  to  nonentities  whose  mouths 
are  twisted  in  an  eternal  smile.  At  Berlin  we  con- 
versed politely  for  the  regulation  time,  and,  after 

145 


COURT  TJFE  FROM  WITHIN 

making  the  circle  of  the  suites  again,  were  conducted 
back  to  our  apartments  in  half  a  dozen  proces- 
sions. 

Back  in  one's  rooms,  it  is  impossible  to  emerge 
without  a  repetition  of  wearisome  ceremonies.  To 
go  out  for  half  an  hour's  walk  by  oneself  is  a  relaxa- 
tion the  poorest  can  enjoy;  it  is  forbidden  to  a  palace 
prisoner.  The  etiquette  of  Berlin  requires  a  prin- 
cess to  be  accompanied  by  a  lady-in-waiting.  And 
usually  the  lady-in-waiting  cannot  walk  fast,  so  that 
the  enjoyment  of  a  little  vigorous  exercise  in  the 
open  air  is  impossible.  Moreover,  people  about 
courts  are  usually  uninteresting  companions.  Ob- 
viously, intelligent  persons  would  not  consent  to  lead 
such  aimless  lives  and  to  conform  to  such  an  inexor- 
able code.  How  inexorable  is  that  code  may  be 
judged  from  the  fact  that  one  of  the  Court  ladies  in 
Berlin  was  confined  to  her  room  for  three  days  as  a 
punishment  for  walking  across  the  courtyard  in  an 
indecorous  manner,  that  is  to  say  with  one  hand 
ungloved. 

The  Emperor  William's  insistence  on  law  and 
order  even  extends  to  details  of  house-keeping.  For 
instance,  he  knows  that  I  like  to  begin  the  day  with 

146 


THE  KAISER  AND  HIS  COURT 

something  more  substantial  than  the  coffee  and  rolls 
most  Continentals  take  in  the  morning.  Accord- 
ingly, whenever  I  have  stayed  at  the  Schloss  he  has 
himself  given  orders  that  an  English  breakfast  should 
be  served  in  my  apartments,  and  I  have  always  been 
indulged  with  the  eggs  and  bacon  and  marmalade  I 
am  accustomed  to.  At  first  sight  it  may  seem  a  little 
odd  that  an  Emperor  should  be  at  the  pains  to  ar- 
range the  menu  of  a  guest's  breakfast.  The  Kaiser 
evidently  knows  as  well  as  I  do  that  a  princess  in 
a  palace  is  less  happily  situated  than  a  visitor  in  an 
English  country-house,  who  gives  his  orders  and  gets 
what  he  likes  served  in  his  room.  It  would  never 
occur  to  me  to  ask  for  a  boiled  egg  at  breakfast  in 
a  palace  where  people  are  not  accustomed  to  have 
boiled  eggs  for  breakfast,  because  the  order  would 
pass  through  so  many  persons  before  it  reached  the 
kitchen  that  my  egg  would  probably  be  an  omelette 
au  surprise  or  a  terrine  of  foie-gras  before  it  arrived 
in  my  dining-room. 

Above  and  beyond  the  Kaiser's  love  of  seeing  that 
things  work  smoothly  in  his  home  is  his  love  of  his 
capital.  To  him  Berlin  is  a  daughter,  whom  he  likes 
to  see  beautiful  and  well  turned-out,  just  as  he  likes 

147 


COURT  LIFE  FROM  WITHIN 

to  sec  the  Kaiserin  and  the  Duchess  of  Brunswick 
charmingly  dressed. 

"It  has  been  raining  hard,"  he  said,  coming  into 
my  room  one  morning,  "and  it  has  just  stopped.  I 
want  you  to  come  out  with  me,  because  I  have  some- 
thing interesting  to  show  you." 

I  put  on  my  hat  at  once  and  we  went  down  to  a 
carriage  which  was  waiting  and  drove  away.  I  was 
wondering  what  interesting  sight  I  was  going  to  see 
and  what  surprise  the  Kaiser  had  in  store  for  me. 

"Look I"  he  cried  suddenly,  "look  at  the  streets! 
There  have  been  torrents  of  rain  and  the  weather  only 
cleared  up  a  few  minutes  ago,  but  do  you  see  that 
there  is  not  a  speck  of  mud  on  the  road?" 

It  was  true.  The  streets  were  surprisingly  and  ab- 
solutely clean. 

"You  appear  to  dry  as  well  as  to  sweep  them,"  I 
said. 

"I  have  an  army  of  road-sweepers,"  he  said. 
"Here  they  arc,"  and  he  pointed  to  a  group  of  men 
energetically  plying  their  brooms.  "I  wanted  you 
to  see  how  clean  I  keep  Berlin." 

"And  is  that  all  }ou  have  brought  me  out  to  see?" 
I  said  teasingly. 

148 


Courtesy  of  Collier's 

German  Emperor  ix  Austriax  Uniform 


THE  KAISER  AND  HIS  COURT 

"Yes,  all,"  he  said,  and  we  both  laughed. 

The  Kaiser  knows  that  I  am  passionately  fond 
of  dancing,  and  he  used  to  make  a  point  of  arrang- 
ing small  dances  when  I  was  at  the  castle,  so  that 
I  could  enjoy  myself  without  the  restraint  imposed 
on  Royal  personages  at  the  formal  Court  balls. 
They  used  to  call  these  small  dances :  Les  Bals  de 
Vlnfanta.  At  Court  balls  we  walked  round  the  circle 
of  guests — at  all  Courts  people  seem  eternally  stand- 
ing in  smiling  circles — and  the  foreign  ladies,  penned 
behind  their  ambassadors,  used  to  afford  me  consider- 
able amusement,  especially  the  Americans,  who  used 
to  appear  in  larger  numbers  than  they  have  done  re- 
cently. There  they  stood  in  the  glory  of  expensive 
court  trains,  which  could  be  no  possible  use  to  them 
afterwards,  and  curtsied  to  the  ground  when  the  am- 
bassadors had  recited  their  names  to  each  of  us.  I 
often  wondered  why  they  came  and  what  pleasure 
they  could  possibly  derive  from  seeing  us  smile  and 
from  curtsying  to  us.  Obviously  sensible  and  rep- 
resentative women  would  not  be  among  them,  unless, 
indeed,  their  husbands  held  official  positions  which 
necessitated  their  presence. 

After  circling  the  circle,  we  went  to  the  dais  and 
149 


COURT  LIFE  FROM  WITHIN 

sat  for  a  few  moments  in  gilt  armchairs,  facing  the 
general  compan}-,  before  descending  to  dance  the 
quadrille  d'honncur.  When  that  ceremony  was 
ended,  one's  partner,  a  prince  or  an  ambassador, 
handed  one  back  to  the  dais,  made  a  low  bow  and 
retired.  At  Courts  etiquette  does  not  allow  a  prin- 
cess to  choose  a  partner  because  he  happens  to  waltz 
well  or  to  be  amusing.  At  Berlin  chamberlains  had 
lists  of  partners  for  princesses,  and  one  of  them 
would  bring  me  the  card  on  which  their  names  were 
inscribed,  just  as  a  waiter  brings  one  a  bill-of-fare 
in  a  restaurant,  and  I  gave  my  orders.  Each  part- 
ner came  to  the  dais,  made  a  very  low  bow,  and, 
when  the  dance  was  over,  consigned  me  to  my  golden 
arm-chair  with  another  low  bow.  The  Kaiser  has 
caused  the  minuet  to  be  revived  at  his  Court,  and, 
when  I  watched  that  stately  dance  from  the  dais,  I 
used  to  feel  certain  that  I  was  at  the  Court  of  the 
Roi  Soldi.  But  the  Bals  dc  Vlnfantd  were  far  more 
charming,  for  then  I  could  dance  with  whom  I  liked 
and  waltz  to  my  heart's  content. 

These  informal  dances  are  just  an  instance  of  the 
personal  consideration  which  the  Kaiser  has  always 
shown  me.      "Madame,  vos  desirs  sont  les  ordres  pour 

150 


THE  KAISER  AND  HIS  COURT 

Guillaume"  he  telegraphed  to  me  once,  and  that  was 
in  answer  to  a  letter  I  had  sent,  begging  him  to  ask 
the  Sultan  Abdul  Hamid  not  to  chop  off  the  head  of 
Izzet  Pasha,  who  was  lying  in  prison  under  sentence 
of  death.  A  Turkish  lady,  whom  I  knew  in  Paris, 
had  been  to  see  me  and  had  begged  me  to  ask  the 
Kaiser,  who  was  about  to  visit  Constantinople,  to 
intercede  with  the  Sultan  for  the  unfortunate  man. 
I  knew  nothing  about  Izzet  Pasha,  but  my  friend  was 
so  distressed  and  so  confident  that  I  would  help  her, 
that  I  was  very  much  touched,  and  immediately  wrote 
to  the  Kaiser.  The  lady  was  overjoyed  when  I 
showed  her  the  courtly  reply  I  had  received,  and  the 
Sultan,  of  course,  granted  the  Kaiser's  request. 

The  matter  did  not  end  there.  Two  years  later, 
when  I  had  entirely  forgotten  it,  I  arrived  one  day 
in  Madrid,  and  the  instant  I  had  got  out  of  the  train, 
the  Queen  Mother  and  my  sister,  the  Infanta  Isa- 
bella, who  were  waiting  on  the  platform  to  receive 
me,  began  to  question  me  about  some  mysterious 
Turk  in  whom  they  evidently  supposed  I  was  deeply 
interested. 

"Who  is  this  Turk  you  have  sent  us,  Eulalia?" 
asked  the  Queen. 

151 


COURT  LIFE  FROM  WITHIN 

"But  I  do  not  know  a  single  Turk,"  I  said. 

"But  this  Turk  who  has  arrived  in  Madrid,  because 
you  want  to  liave  him  near  you,"  said  my  sister. 

"\Miat  crazy  nonsense  I"  I  cried.  "Are  you  both 
out  of  your  minds'?" 

"Certainly  not,"  said  the  Queen,  "seeing  that  I 
have  a  letter  from  the  Sultan,  saying  that  he  has  sent 
the  man  here  as  Turkish  Minister  entirely  to  please 
you." 

Then  the  truth  dawned  on  me.  Abdul  Hamid 
must  have  asked  the  German  Emperor  why  he  de- 
sired the  prisoner  he  had  j:)leaded  for  to  be  pardoned, 
and  the  Kaiser  must  have  told  him  that  it  was  the 
wish  of  the  Infanta  Eulalia.  Mohammedan  ideas 
of  feminine  psycholog}^  made  the  Sultan  see  a  tale  of 
the  Arabian  Nights,  and,  determining  to  humour  me 
to  the  top  of  my  bent,  he  sent  the  hero  of  the  imag- 
inary romance  to  Madrid  where,  as  he  expressly 
stated  in  the  letter  the  Queen  Mother  showed  me  at 
the  palace,  he  hoped  he  would  remain  as  permanent 
Minister,  to  be  for  long  years  an  ornament  of  the 
Court  of  the  Infanta  Eulalia. 

French  people,  who  think  of  the  Kaiser  as  a  Teu- 
ton to  the  backbone  caring  only  for  German  ideals 

15^ 


THE  KAISER  AND  HIS  COURT 

and  achievements,  would  be  surprised  at  the  genuine 
taste  he  has  for  French  literature,  which  he  has  cul- 
tivated by  an  exhaustive  reading  of  French  classics. 
Realising  that  I  am  au  fond  of  French  in  spite  of  my 
Spanish  name  and  title,  the  Emperor  often  showed 
me  that  side  of  his  character  which  makes  him  an 
admirer  of  French  literature,  French  art  and  French 
drama.  One  day  he  took  me  to  the  old  palace  of 
Sans-Souci  at  Potsdam  to  show  me  the  apartments  of 
Frederick  the  Great  and  the  relics  of  the  King's 
friend,  Voltaire,  which  are  preserved  there.  We 
went  into  Frederick's  library,  and  when  the  door  was 
closed,  I  found  myself  in  a  circle  of  book-shelves 
from  which  there  seemed  no  exit.  All  the  books 
were  French. 

The  Kaiser  smiled. 

"Here  you  are  again  in  your  dear  France,"  he  said. 

"Yes,"  I  answered;  "I  am  very  proud  of  my 
French  ancestry,  and  you  yourself  are  very  proud 
to  let  me  see  that  Frederick  lived  in  a  French  at- 
mosphere, and  to  show  me  all  these  French  books 
with  which  he  surrounded  himself. 

Of  course,  as  may  be  imagined,  the  Kaiser's  in- 
terest in  French  culture  is  more  in  the  way  of  relaxa- 

153 


COURT  LIFE  FROM  WITHIN 

tion  than  anything  else.  As  I  have  intimated,  his 
dominant  characteristic  is  his  deep-rooted  belief  in 
the  divinity  of  his  office.  Why  the  ruler  of  a  mod- 
ern state,  which  has  been  so  progressive  in  its  scien- 
tific and  commercial  achievements,  should  be  so  im- 
bued with  mediaeval  ideas  of  kingship  is  a  problem  to 
puzzle  psychologists;  but  it  is  a  factor  that  cannot 
be  neglected,  if  one  is  to  form  an)'  proper  apprecia- 
tion of  governmental  conditions  in  Germany. 

The  origin  of  the  Kaiser's  belief  in  the  divinity  of 
kings  is  one  thing;  but  the  acceptance  of  this  belief 
In-  the  whole  nation  is  quite  another.  Probably  the 
only  explanation  lies  in  the  docility  of  the  Teutonic 
temperament.  An  average  citizen  who  docs  not  re- 
volt at  a  s}Stem  of  police  control  so  irksome  as  to 
be  unbearable  to  the  Anglo-Saxon,  who  does  not  balk 
at  addressing  even  minor  officials  with  high-sound- 
ing titles,  is  certainly  more  ready  to  believe  that  ab- 
solute power  is  vested  in  his  Emperor  than  a  man  of 
more  independent  habits  of  thought  and  action. 

No  matter  how  distasteful  such  a  form  of  govern- 
ment may  be  to  citizens  of  a  freer  state,  or  how  un- 
sound in  theory,  it  has  had  its  good  points.  Because 
the  Emj)eror  William  has  believed  in  law  and  order, 

154 


THE  KAISER  AND  HIS  COURT 

and  has  had  power  to  enforce  his  conceptions  on  his 
people,  German  cities  are  clean,  well  cared  for,  and 
are  freer  from  the  curse  of  corruption  in  local  gov- 
ernments than  in  some  more  democratic  countries. 

But  because  the  Kaiser's  ideas  of  proper  govern- 
ment included  mighty  armaments,  the  military 
party,  always  the  dominant  class,  was  encouraged  to 
grow  stronger  and  more  powerful  each  year.  His 
very  enthusiasm  over  his  efficient  army  and  navy  no 
doubt  had  a  very  great  influence  on  the  nation  at 
large.  Trained  to  venerate  their  ruler,  naturally 
they  were  willing  to  uphold  what  he  upheld.  He 
had  always  fostered  the  growth  of  trade,  and  his  peo- 
ple had  seen  how  this  policy  had  benefited  them. 
The  Kaiser  believed  in  increasing  his  army  and  navy, 
and  the  people,  never  questioning  his  judgment,  did 
not  rebel  when  the  tax-collector  took  a  little  more 
of  their  earnings  each  year. 

Whether  the  Kaiser  ever  realised  that  his  encour- 
agement of  the  military  caste  had  loosed  a  force  that 
might  sweep  everything  before  it  is  hard  to  say.  If 
it  ever  occurred  to  him  that  the  party  was  growing 
too  strong,  surely  his  mystic  belief  in  his  own  di- 
vinely derived  power  reassured  him  with  the  argu- 

155 


COURT  LIFE  FROM  WITHIN 

ment  that  his  personal  authority  could  always  hold 
these  turbulent  elements  in  check.  Accustomed  to 
rule  as  absolutely  as  any  mediaeval  potentate,  the 
Kaiser  had  unconsciously  called  into  being  vast 
forces  which  in  turn  were  to  dominate  him,  to  engulf 
him,  and  to  make  him  the  foremost  figure  in  the  most 
gigantic  cataclysm  of  human  history. 


156 


CHAPTER  VIII 

THE  TSAR  AND  HIS  PEOPLE 

Looking  back  over  my  travels,  few  visits  stand  out 
with  more  pleasant  recollections  than  those  I  have 
paid  to  Petrograd. 

In  the  present  Tsar,  Nicholas  IL,  one  finds  a  type 
of  sovereign  not  only  different  from  either  King  Ed- 
ward or  the  Kaiser,  but,  in  my  experience,  unique. 
Sovereigns  may  have  moments  of  an  affectionate  emo- 
tion; they  rarely  have  consistent  tenderness.  In 
their  most  intimate  relations  of  family  life  they  are 
apt  to  resume  suddenly  the  frigid  tones  of  royalty; 
and  I  have  seen  a  king,  talking  even  with  his  mother, 
get  himself  unexpectedly  into  his  royal  manner  and 
speak  as  stiffly  as  if  he  were  giving  his  mind  to  some 
lower  breed  of  human  being.  Many  a  person,  chat- 
ting tete-a-tete  with  a  sovereign  alone,  has  been 
charmed  by  the  simple  naturalness  of  his  manner, 
and  meeting  him  an  hour  later,  before  others,  has 
wondered  if  it  could  be  the  same  man.  Not  so  the 
Tsar.     He  has  more  human  tenderness  than  I  ever 

157 


COl  RT  LIFE  FROM  WITHIN 

saw  in  any  other  man.  He  enters  a  crowded  audi- 
ence-room \\  itli  the  same  charming  kindHness  and  un- 
consciousness of  self  that  he  has  in  the  privacy  of 
family  life.  His  eyes  have  always  the  one  clear 
gaze  of  a  clean  soul. 

He  is  not  at  first  impressive,  simply  because  he  is 
incapable  of  playing  a  part,  even  a  royal  one.  But 
the  more  you  see  of  him  the  more  he  grows  on  }ou. 
He  has  no  love  of  display,  of  uniforms,  of  the  parade 
of  royal  power.  He  is  wise  with  the  wisdom  of 
sympathy,  and  eager  to  help  his  people,  and  benevo- 
lent in  his  thought  of  them  to  a  degree  for  which  I 
know  no  parallel.  I  think  it  must  be  due  to  the  un- 
mistakable irradiations  of  this  kindliness  of  heart 
that  no  attempts  have  been  made  upon  his  life,  even 
during  the  bitterest  frenzies  of  revolutionary  hate. 

In  the  menace  with  which  the  existence  of  royalty 
is  surrounded,  one  would  expect  to  find  the  Imperial 
famil)-  living  aniitl  all  the  oppressions  of  constant 
fear.  On  the  contrar}-,  I  thought  them  the  happiest 
royal  family  I  have  seen.  They  were  so  naturally 
affectionate  and  happy  that  it  was  even  possible  to 
forget  that  they  were  royal.  They  had  apparently 
accepted  the  dangers  of  their  life  as  soldiers  do — 

158 


THE  TSAR  AND  HIS  PEOPLE 

as  we  all  accept  the  lesser  dangers  of  our  ordinary 
day — and  were  unaffected  by  them. 

What  they  thought  of  the  problems  of  their  rule 
I  do  not  know;  and  I  do  not  know  enough  of  their 
people  to  understand  what  those  problems  really  are. 
But  surely  no  power  could  be  more  beneficently  exer- 
cised than  this  man's  must  be;  and  if  his  spirit  could 
only  animate  the  instruments  of  his  authority  and 
the  innumerable  officials  who  are  necessary  to  ad- 
minister it,  the  mad  asperities  of  recrimination  in 
Russia  would  be  as  impossible  to  the  administration 
and  its  opponents  as  they  are  to  the  Tsar  himself. 

He  is  a  Dane,  through  his  mother,  and  his  quali- 
ties are  those  that  make  the  Royal  Families  of  Den- 
mark and  Sweden  so  charming.  But  these  are  the 
constitutional  monarchies  of  a  kindly  and  contented 
people,  who  have  no  cause  to  rebel  against  a  govern- 
ment that  is  their  own  creation,  and  who  show  no 
awe  of  a  ruling  family  as  unassuming  as  themselves. 
I  think,  if  one  must  be  born  Royal,  it  would  be  wise 
to  be  born  to  a  Scandinavian  Crown. 

I  have  rarely  felt  happier  than  I  did  when  I  heard 
that  Nicholas  11.  had  called  on  his  subjects  to  take 
a  share  in  the  government  of  the  vast  Russian  Em- 

159 


COURT  LIFE  FROM  WITHIN 

pi  re.  Tlie  publication  of  the  Imperial  Manifesto 
of  October,  1905,  in  which  the  Emperor  announced 
the  creation  of  the  Imperial  Duma,  was  an  event  of 
first-class  importance,  and  I  admired  the  spirit  of 
the  nation  which  had  shown  its  determination  to 
limit  the  power  of  the  Crown  and  the  wisdom  of 
the  Emperor  in  yielding  to  the  desires  of  his  subjects. 

"This  is  the  hrst  step,"  I  said,  "on  the  path  which 
must  ultimately  lead  to  the  substitution*  of  demo- 
cratic for  autocratic  government  in  Russia." 

My  affection  for  the  Emperor  and  Empress,  my 
enthusiasm  for  the  advancement  of  democratic  ideas, 
my  recollections  of  a  long  visit  to  Russia,  all  com- 
bined to  intensify  my  interest  in  the  dawn  of  free- 
dom in  a  land  which  I  felt,  when  I  visited  it,  was 
part  of  Asia  included  in  Europe  by  some  strange  mis- 
take of  the  geographers. 

It  was  mid- winter  when  I  arrived  for  the  first 
time  in  Petersburg,  magical  beneath  its  snow  man- 
tle, and  I  came  as  a  simple  tourist  to  see  the  country 
and  to  study  the  conditions  of  Russian  life.  I  es- 
tablished myself  in  a  hotel  as  a  Spanish  countess, 
feeling  delighted  that  nobody  knew  who  I  actually 
was,  and  revelling  in  the  freedom  of  strict  incognito. 

160 


THE  TSAR  AND  HIS  PEOPLE 

But  I  had  not  been  in  the  hotel  five  hours  before  a 
Grand  Master  of  Ceremonies  arrived  and  betrayed 
my  secret.  From  that  minute  everybody  knew  that 
the  countess  was  an  Infanta  of  Spain,  and  my  liberty 
was  gone.  It  is  my  usual  experience.  I  arrive 
somewhere,  believing  that  not  a  soul  knows  where 
I  am,  and,  almost  before  I  have  taken  possession  of 
my  rooms,  there  is  a  whirr  of  the  telephone  bell  and 
somebody  at  the  other  end  saying:  "Eulalia,  how 
did  you  get  here?  You  must  come  and  see  us  at 
once." 

The  Grand  Master  of  Ceremonies  brought  me  a 
message  from  the  Emperor  and  Empress,  telling  me 
how  delighted  they  were  to  know  that  they  were 
going  to  see  me  soon,  and  suggesting  that  I  should 
come  to  the  Winter  Palace  the  next  morning  for  the 
Twelfth  Day  ceremony  of  the  Blessing  of  the 
Waters. 

"But  I  have  nothing  to  wear  I"  I  cried. 

It  was  absolutely  true.  I  had  never  expected  to 
iigure  at  a  Court  ceremony,  and  it  had  not  occurred 
to  me  to  bring  a  manteau  de  cour.  Etiquette,  how- 
ever, is  less  severe  in  Russia  than  in  Spain  or  in 
Prussia,  as  I  soon  discovered,  and  the  next  morning  I 

161 


COl'RT  LIFE  FROM  WITHIN 

jnir  on  my  smartest  frock  and  drove  to  the  Winter 
I'alace,  a  gigantic  building,  painted  dull  red,  with 
rows  of  gods  and  goddesses  standing  on  the  cornice 
of  its  stupendous  facade,  looking  cold  and  unhappy 
in  the  nipping  air. 

I  had  not  seen  the  Empress  since  we  were  girls, 
staying  with  Queen  Victoria  at  Windsor  or  in  the 
beautiful  Isle  of  Wight.  And  what  a  charming  girl 
she  was  I  A  simple  English  girl  in  appearance,  in 
a  skirt  and  blouse,  utterly  unaffected,  warm-hearted, 
and  fresh  as  a  rosebud  touched  with  dew.  I  was 
thinking  of  the  happy,  careless  days  when  we  were 
in  England  together,  as  I  drove  to  the  palace,  for- 
getting the  change  that  the  passage  of  the  years  makes 
in  the  friends  of  one's  youth,  and  when  I  went  into 
the  room  where  the  Empress  was  waiting  to  watch 
the  Blessing  of  the  Waters  from  the  window,  I  felt 
startled  to  find,  instead  of  the  girl  I  used  to  know,  a 
surpassingly  beautiful  and  stately  woman.  The  pet- 
als of  the  rosebud  had  unfolded.  She  was  the  centre 
of  a  brilliant  group  of  Grand  Duchesses  and  ladies, 
all  wearing  the  strange  but  beautiful  dress  of  the 
Russian  Court,  with  long  hanging  sleeves.  On  her 
head   was   a   kokosluuk,   a   crescent-shaped   diadem, 

162 


THE  TSAR  AND  HIS  PEOPLE 

flaming  with  diamonds,  from  which  fell  a  long  white 
veil,  and  her  stateliness  and  beauty  distinguished  her 
from  all  the  other  sumptuous  figures  surrounding  her. 
A  stranger  who  had  never  seen  her  before  would 
have  been  certain  that  it  was  she,  and  not  one  of 
the  others,  who  was  Empress. 

"How  good  to  see  you  again,  Eulalia,  after  all 
these  years,"  she  said,  coming  towards  me;  and  she 
put  her  arms  round  me  and  kissed  me. 

And  in  that  greeting  I  realised  that  the  Tsaritsa 
had  not  changed.  She  was  still  the  affectionate 
and  unaffected  friend  I  had  known  years  before. 
We  had  a  hundred  questions  to  ask  each  other,  but 
almost  before  we  had  had  time  to  begin,  we  had 
to  stop  talking  to  attend  to  the  imposing  ceremony 
which  was  beginning  on  the  frozen  Neva. 

From  the  window  I  saw  that  a  pavilion,  like  an 
exceedingly  decorative  bandstand,  had  been  erected 
on  the  ice,  just  in  front  of  the  palace,  and  I  watched 
a  procession  of  ecclesiastics  in  stiff  Byzantine  robes 
and  glittering  mitres  move  slowly  across  the  road 
separating  it  from  the  palace,  followed  by  the 
Grand  Dukes  and  the  Emperor.  The  singing  of 
the  choir  floated  to  us  through  the  frosty  air  and  the 

163 


COURT  LIFE  FROM  WITHIN 

Empress   crossed  herself  devoutly.     She   is   a  sin- 
cerely religious  woman. 

I  watched  the  Emperor  standing  motionless  be- 
neath the  fretted  and  gilded  canopy  of  the  pavilion, 
and  the  thought  suddenly  flashed  into  my  mind  that 
the  Russian  Emperors  alone  claim  the  right  to  gov- 
ern the  souls  as  well  as  the  bodies  of  their  subjects. 
The  Autocrat  is  a  great  ecclesiastical  personage  as 
well  as  a  secular  ruler,  and  the  Russian  Church  de- 
pends upon  him  and  can  do  nothing  without  his  con- 
sent. I  remembered  that  banishment  to  Siberia  was 
the  punishment  for  those  who  deserted  the  Orthodox 
Church  and  refused  to  believe  as  the  Tsar  believes 
and  to  pray  as  the  Tsar  prays.  The  Kings  of  Spain 
and  the  Emperors  of  Austria  are  sons,  not  rulers, 
of  the  Church,  and  I  had  been  taught  that  the  Pope 
was  king  of  kings.  It  seemed  to  me  that  no  worse 
form  of  despotism  could  be  conceived  than  the  con- 
centration in  the  hands  of  an  autocratic  ruler  of  the 
spiritual  and  temporal  power  and,  as  these  thoughts 
crowded  into  my  mind,  there  seemed  to  me  some- 
thing sinister  and  terrible  in  the  ceremony  I  was 
watching,  and  I  realised,  as  I  had  never  done  be- 
fore, the  Immensity  and  the  awfulness  of  the  power 

if.4 


""""'!^?VWt 


Courtesy  of  Collier's 

Nicholas  II  and  the  Heir  of  Russia 


THE  TSAR  AND  HIS  PEOPLE 

wielded  by  the  motionless  figure  beneath  the  gay 
pavilion.  Nobody  rejoiced  more  than  I  did  when 
the  Emperor  published  the  Manifesto  of  April, 
1905,  granting  his  subjects  religious  liberty,  and  I 
realised  that  the  stupendous  claim  which  had  made 
me  shudder  when  I  thought  of  it,  as  I  watched  the 
sumptuous  Twelfth  Day  ceremony  from  the  win- 
dows of  the  Winter  Palace,  had  been  renounced  for 
ever.  In  point  of  fact,  Nicholas  II.  had  no  desire 
to  maintain  it,  and  he  renounced  it  as  soon  as  an 
appropriate  occasion  arose. 

After  the  picturesque  ceremony  which  had  stirred 
these  thoughts  had  ended  and  the  Archbishop  had 
dipped  a  golden  cross  in  the  water  running  below 
the  ice  of  the  river,  the  holy  water  was  brought  into 
the  palace  to  the  Empress,  and  the  Emperor  joined 
us.  He  gave  me  a  characteristically  Russian  wel- 
come. His  manner  was  engagingly  simple  and  un- 
affected. The  contrast  between  him  and  the  Ger- 
man Emperor  was  extraordinary.  The  Kaiser,  a 
constitutional  monarch,  whose  power  is  strictly  lim- 
ited, shows  by  his  bearing  and  his  manner,  as  I 
have  indicated  in  another  chapter,  that  he  holds  the 
divine  right  of  kings  to  be  a  cardinal  article  of  faith. 

165 


COURT  LIFE  FROM  WITHIN 

When  one  is  with  the  Tsar  it  requires  a  certain  effort 
of  the  imagination  to  remember  that  he  possesses 
autocratic  power  over  the  lives  of  160,000,000  hu- 
man beings.  1  he  Russians  are  the  most  hospitable 
people  in  the  world,  and  the  Emperor  and  Empress 
are  not  excelled  by  any  of  their  subjects  in  kindness 
and  generosity  to  guests.  They  both  insisted  that, 
so  long  as  I  remained  in  Petersburg,  I  must  be  with 
them  as  much  as  possible,  and,  in  point  of  fact,  al- 
though I  slept  at  the  hotel,  I  was  constantly  at  the 
W^inter  Palace,  and  had  my  part  in  the  intimate 
family  life  of  the  Imperial  family. 

When  a  man  likes  nothing  better  than  to  remain 
at  home  with  his  wife,  it  is  a  sure  sign  that  he  is 
very  much  in  love  with  her.  Judged  by  that  test, 
there  is  no  happier  couple  in  Europe  than  the  Em- 
peror and  Empress  of  Russia.  They  are  never  more 
contented  than  when  together,  and  it  was  obvious 
to  me  that  the  Tsar  simply  adores  his  wife.  It 
would  be  strange  if  he  did  not,  for  there  is  not  a 
gentler  or  sweeter  woman  in  the  world  than  the 
beautiful  Tsaritsa.  And  both  of  them  are  devoted 
to  their  children.  They  used  to  make  me  come  with 
them   sometimes    to    the   nursery,    where    the    little 

166 


THE  TSAR  AND  HIS  PEOPLE 

Grand  Duchesses  used  to  welcome  us  with  shrieks 
of  delight.  What  games  there  were  I  People  who 
think  of  the  Tsar  as  a  frowning  despot  would  have 
been  astonished  to  see  a  vigorous  pillow-fight  going 
on  between  him  and  his  children.  And  away  from 
the  formalities  of  the  Court,  closeted  with  her  chil- 
dren, the  Tsaritsa  was  always  radiant  and  happy. 
Under  the  spell  of  their  prattle  and  of  their  caresses 
she  was  transformed.  The  smiling  mother  seemed 
a  different  woman  to  the  beautiful  but  grave  lady 
seen  by  the  public  in  the  ceremonies  of  the  Court. 

"Do  try  and  get  the  Empress  to  smile,  Eulalia," 
said  one  of  the  Grand  Duchesses  to  me  at  some  Court 
function. 

But  that  was  sooner  said  than  done.  There  is 
not  a  trace  of  artificiality  in  the  Empress's  charac- 
ter. She  seemed  unable  to  pretend  she  was  enjoy- 
ing herself,  when,  in  point  of  fact,  she  was  fatigued 
and  bored.  Moving  as  the  central  figure  of  a  splen- 
did pageant,  I  think  she  was  always  wishing  the 
ceremony  to  be  at  an  end  and  to  find  herself  free 
to  be  with  her  children  again. 

The  tastes  of  the  Emperor  are  as  simple  as  those 
of  the  Empress  and  in  curious  contrast  to  those  of 

167 


COURT  LIFE  FROM  WITHIN 

most  of  the  Imperial  family.  Neither  of  them  likes 
the  late  supper-parties  in  which  the  majority  of  their 
relations  indulge.  Early  to  bed  and  early  to  rise 
is  my  motto,  and  supper-parties,  hardly  finished  at 
two  o'clock  in  the  morning,  bored  me  unutterably. 
When  I  went  to  the  opera  with  the  Emperor  and 
Empress,  we  used  to  take  time  by  the  forelock  and 
sup  in  the  second  entr'acte^  in  order  to  be  able  to 
go  straight  to  bed  when  we  got  home.  The  ballets 
given  at  the  Marinsky  Theatre  were  exceedingly 
beautiful,  and  the  Empress  followed  the  movements 
of  the  dancers  with  evident  enjoyment  from  the 
stage-box.  Behind  the  box  is  a  charming  room,  and 
there  it  was  that  supper  used  to  be  served. 

"Here  is  your  high  tea,  Eulalia,"  the  Empress 
would  say  merrily,  and  then  we  sat  down  to  a  square 
meal  of  cold  meat  and  countless  cups  of  tea,  to 
which  I  used  to  do  ample  justice,  as  I  did  not  dine 
before  going  to  the  theatre. 

His  love  of  simplicity  does  not,  however,  prevent 
the  Emperor  from  enjoying  Society.  Like  most 
Russians,  he  is  fond  of  it,  and  his  animation  and 
vivacity  at  Court  balls  were  deliglitfiil  and,  more- 
over, genuine.     I  liked  to  watcli  him  dance  the  ma- 

168 


THE  TSAR  AND  HIS  PEOPLE 

zurka,  that  rushing,  almost  violent,  dance  that  they 
say  only  a  Slav  can  dance  to  perfection.  It  was  so 
obvious  that  he  enjoyed  it.  When  supper  was 
served  we  went  to  a  long  table  on  a  dais,  set  at  one 
end  of  a  great  hall,  and  I  discovered  that  the  Rus- 
sian Court  has  a  very  charming  custom  which  does 
not  obtain  elsewhere.  The  Emperor  and  Empress 
took  their  places,  facing  the  general  company,  with 
their  Royal  guests  and  other  members  of  the  Im- 
perial family  to  right  and  to  left  of  them;  but  we 
had  hardly  been  a  minute  at  table  before  the  Em- 
peror rose  and  went  to  one  of  the  tables  below  the 
dais,  where  he  sat  down  and  chatted  with  the  people 
supping  at  it.  After  talking  for  five  minutes,  he 
went  to  another  table  to  greet  other  guests,  and  then 
passed  from  group  to  group,  sitting  down  at  each 
table  for  a  few  minutes.  And,  with  the  Russian 
instinct  of  hospitality,  the  Emperor  played  the  part 
of  host  so  well  that  the  conversation  became  more 
animated  at  each  table  he  visited.  The  presence  of 
some  sovereigns,  too  careful  of  preserving  the  dis- 
tance between  themselves  and  persons  who  are  not 
of  the  blood  royal,  sometimes  casts  a  gloom  on  their 
guests. 

169 


COURT  LIFE  FROM  WITHIN 

Perhaps  tlic  Emperor's  obvious  enjoyment  of  a 
ball  was  due  to  the  tact  that  it  is  but  seldom  he  can 
allow  iiimselt  relaxation.  There  is  not  a  busier 
man  in  the  world.  I  once  remarked  to  him  that  I 
find  it  impossible  to  get  through  the  work  of  the  day 
unless  I  follow  a  definite  rule,  and  I  asked  him  how 
he  divided  up  his  time. 

"I  get  up  early,"  he  answered,  "and  after  a  light 
breakfast  I  work  until  eleven.  Then  I  take  a  walk 
and  come  back  for  luncheon  at  half-past  twelve. 
After  that  comes  the  task  of  giving  audiences  to  min- 
isters and  others,  and,  when  work  allows  it,  I  take 
a  drive  before  tea  in  order  to  get  some  fresh  air. 
Immediately  after  tea  I  am  busy  again  with  my  sec- 
retaries, and  w^ork  with  them  lasts  until  dinner- 
time." 

"A  strenuous  day,"  I  said. 

"But  that  is  not  the  end  of  it,"  he  answered,  smil- 
ing. "I  am  very  often  obliged  to  go  back  to  work 
straight  from  the  dinner-table,  and  sometimes  it  is 
not  finished  until  far  on  into  the  night." 

The  Emperor's  devotion  to  duty  is  in  striking 
contrast  to  the  almost  traditional  love  of  pleasure 
displayed  by  the  Grand  Dukes.     A  foreigner  might 

170 


THE  TSAR  AND  HIS  PEOPLE 

easily  be  led  to  suppose  that  the  House  of  Romanoff 
is  at  heart  in  sympathy  with  democratic  ideas.  The 
lack  of  formality  at  Court,  the  marriages  between 
Grand  Dukes  and  commoners,  the  presence  of  un- 
lettered peasants  at  certain  of  the  ceremonies  of  the 
Winter  Palace,  the  share  taken  by  some  of  the  mem- 
bers of  the  Imperial  family  in  amusements  accessible 
to  anybody  who  has  money  in  his  pocket,  their  sup- 
per parties  in  restaurants  and  their  enjoyment  of  the 
cafe  concerts  of  the  capital — all  these  things  might 
deceive  the  stranger.  To  know  the  Grand  Dukes 
and  Grand  Duchesses  is  to  realise  that  they  neither 
understand  the  aspirations  of  the  democracy  nor 
sympathise  with  them,  for,  reflecting  the  glory  of 
Autocrac)^,  they  are  more  firmly  convinced  than  any 
other  Royal  persons  in  Europe  that  a  gulf  divides 
them  from  the  rest  of  mankind.  And  this  convic- 
tion is  so  deep  that  they  appear  to  believe  that  the 
most  ordinary  actions  are  ennobled  by  the  mere  fact 
that  they  are  performed  by  persons  in  whose  veins 
flows  the  Imperial  blood. 

The  life  led  by  most  of  them  would  be  unbear- 
able to  me.  A  perpetual  round  of  amusements  be- 
comes in  the  end  as  wearisome   as  the  treadmill. 

171 


COURT  LIFE  FROM  WITHIN 

How  pco])k'  who  arc  not  in  the  first  flush  of  youth 
can  cla^  after  day  sit  u[)  until  two  o'clock  in  the 
niornin<4,  as  too  many  of  thcni  do,  eating  unnecessary 
suppers  and  drinking  champagne,  I  can  not  under- 
stand. High  tea  with  the  Emperor  and  Empress 
pleased  me  better  than  late  suppers  with  the  Grand 
Dukes  and  Grand  Duchesses.  Indeed,  when  I 
yielded  to  persuasion  and  went  out  with  them  for 
an  evening's  amusement  my  sleepiness  used  to  di- 
vert them  immensely. 

"Eulalia,  you're  yawning,"  they  would  say. 

"It  is  two  hours  past  my  bedtime,"  I  would  an- 
swer. 

And  then  we  laughed,  and  it  was  probably  the 
Grand  Duke  Alexis  who  would  suggest  that  we 
should  all  drive  out  to  the  Islands  and  have  another 
supper  at  a  cafe  concert.  Then  I  would  strike  and 
go  home,  scolding  myself  for  sitting  up  so  late  and 
marvelling  at  the  extraordinary  vitality  of  the  rest 
of  the  company,  starting  merrily  on  the  long  sledge 
drive  to  the  Islands,  where  they  would  sit  by  the 
hour  in  a  private  room  overlooking  the  little  stage 
on  which   the  unsuccessful   artists  of  Paris  danced 


and  sang. 


172 


THE  TSAR  AND  HIS  PEOPLE 

Perhaps  it  is  because  I  am  Spanish  and  not  Rus- 
sian that  I  failed  to  see  the  pleasure  to  be  derived 
from  spending  the  night  in  frivolity;  for,  in  point 
of  fact,  there  is  nothing  characteristically  grand- 
ducal  in  tliis  curious  craze ;  it  is  simply  Russian,  and 
Moscow  merchants  will  spend  thousands  of  roubles 
in  extravagant  amusements  between  midnight  and 
sunrise.  The  Grand  Dukes  are  typical  Russians. 
They  have  the  virtues  and  the  failings  of  the  typical 
Russian,  and — I  am  not  sure  whether  it  is  a  virtue 
or  a  failing — they  are,  like  all  the  Russians  I  have 
ever  met,  exceedingly  susceptible  to  feminine 
charms.  To  the  Russian,  love  is  everything,  and 
in  Russia  women  have  more  power  to  change  men's 
lives  than  in  any  other  land. 

To  please  the  woman  he  loves  a  Piussian  will  exile 
himself  to  a  foreign  country,  will  alter  his  habits, 
and  change  his  manner  of  life  completely.  It  is 
not,  therefore,  surprising  that  members  of  the  House 
of  Romanoff  have  deliberately  incurred  the  anger 
of  the  Emperor  and  voluntarily  left  Russia  to  live 
abroad  for  the  sake  of  the  women  they  love.  They 
make  their  homes  in  Paris  or  in  the  English  country- 
side, and  become  the  humble  slaves  of  the  wives 

173 


COURT  LIFE  FROM  WITHIN 

they  have  chosen;  while  these  ladies,  although  per- 
haps of  humble  origin,  find  themselves  treated  by 
Society,  always  anxious  to  gain  the  approval  of 
princes,  with  hardly  less  reverence  than  princesses 
of  the  blood  royal. 

But  if  the  majority  of  the  members  of  the  Impe- 
rial family  love  extravagant  amusement,  there  is 
one  notable  exception  to  the  rule.  The  Grand 
Duchess  Elizabeth,  widow  of  the  Grand  Duke  Serge, 
who  was  assassinated  by  revolutionists,  shares  the 
simple  tastes  of  her  sister,  the  Empress,  and  detests 
the  empty  formality  of  Courts  as  much  as  I  do. 
When  we  were  girls  we  saw  a  great  deal  of  each 
other  at  Windsor  and  in  the  Isle  of  Wight,  and  it 
was  a  great  delight  to  me  to  talk  over  the  old  days 
when  I  visited  her  in  her  palace  within  the  fantastic 
battlements  of  the  Kremlin. 

She  was  undoubtedly  one  of  the  most  beautiful 
women  in  Europe,  and  her  husband  was  extraordi- 
narily handsome;  indeed,  their  beauty  and  their  bear- 
ing made  them  the  most  distinguished  couple  at  the 
great  gathering  of  Royal  personages  I  met  at  Buck- 
ingham Palace  when  the  Jubilee  of  Queen  Victoria 
was  celebrated.     After  the  terrible  death  of  her  hus- 

174 


THE  TSAR  AND  HIS  PEOPLE 

band,  the  Grand  Duchess  devoted  herself  to  the  edu- 
cation of  the  Grand  Duke  Paul's  motherless  chil- 
dren, the  Grand  Duke  Dmitri  and  the  Grand 
Duchess  Maria  Pavlovna,  and,  that  task  accom- 
plished, she  became  a  sister  of  charity.  She  has 
founded  a  convent  in  Moscow,  where  she  follows  a 
severe  rule  and  devotes  herself  to  hospital  work  and 
the  care  of  the  poor,  realising  that  even  a  princess 
has  no  excuse  to  shirk  the  responsibilities  of  life  and 
to  lead  a  useless  existence. 

How  is  it  that  there  is  such  a  marked  difference 
between  the  tastes  of  the  Emperor  and  those  of  his 
uncles  and  cousins?  The  answer  is  not  difficult  to 
find.  The  Emperor's  love  of  simplicity  comes  from 
his  mother,  the  Empress  Marie,  who,  now  that  she 
can  indulge  her  own  tastes,  lives  the  greater  part  of 
the  year  with  Queen  Alexandra  in  a  small  villa  on 
the  Danish  coast.  When  I  visited  them  there  I 
found  that  they  were  living  as  simply  as  private  per- 
sons who  know  nothing  of  the  life  of  Courts. 

But,  while  recognising  the  influence  of  his  mother 
in  the  formation  of  the  Emperor's  character,  I  like 
to  think  that  something  of  the  spirit  of  Peter  the 
Great  has  been  conserved  in  the  Imperial  family, 

175 


COURT  LIFE  FROM  WITHIN 

and  that  tlic  lovo  of  work,  the  courage,  and  the  siin- 
plicit}'  displayed  by  Nicholas  II.  arc  in  some  measure 
gifts  from  his  great  ancestor.  One  afternoon  I  drove 
out  to  tlic  Islands  in  a  troika,  a  sledge  that  might 
have  come  from  Fairyland,  covered  with  glistening 
trappings  and  luxurious  furs  and  drawn  by  three 
horses  abreast,  and,  on  my  wa}',  I  stopped  to  visit 
the  little  house  in  which  Peter  the  Great  lived  when 
he  was  building  his  new  capital.  It  is  a  tiny  cot- 
tage, a  mere  hut,  with  two  rooms.  Nothing  could 
be  sim]:)ler  or  more  unlike  the  vast  Winter  Palace. 
Yet  I  felt,  as  I  left  this  humble  abode,  that  the 
spirit  of  the  man  who  was  content  to  live  in  it  still 
reigns  in  the  s])lendid  home  of  his  descendant,  the 
present  Emperor. 

I  have  alluded  to  the  courage  of  Nicholas  II.,  and 
it  may  surprise  those  who  only  know  him  by  repute 
that  I  should  emphasise  this  trait  of  his  character. 
I  m)self  had  often  heard  that  he  was  timorous  and 
dreaded  assassination.  It  was  therefore  a  great  sur- 
prise to  mc  to  find  that  he  often  walked  from  the 
palace  to  my  hotel,  with  only  a  single  aide-de-camp 
in  attendance.  Although  his  grandfather  had  been 
assassinated  by  revolutionists,  he  himself  appeared 

176 


THE  TSAR  AND  HIS  PEOPLE 

to  be  absolutely  fearless  and  to  disregard  the  risk 
he  ran  by  walking  about  Petersburg.  If  precau- 
tions are  taken  to  protect  him  now,  he  permits  them 
solely  because  he  is  convinced  that  his  life  is  of  value 
to  his  people.  Russia  is  his  one  thought.  During 
recent  months  he  has  proved  this,  too,  by  the  way 
he  has  identified  himself  personally  with  the  cam- 
paign in  which  his  soldiers  are  engaged. 

Those  who  do  not  know  him  often  speak  or  write 
of  him  as  cruel,  tyrannical,  caring  for  nothing  but 
the  conservation  of  the  Imperial  power  and  wealth. 
That  is  an  absolutely  false  estimate  of  his  character. 
One  has  only  to  look  into  his  beautiful  blue  eyes  to 
realise  that  he  is  neither  harsh  nor  cruel  and  to  un- 
derstand his  great  tenderness.  Indeed,  it  is  his  ten- 
derness that  distinguishes  him  from  most  of  the 
sovereigns  I  know.  His  affection  for  his  mother, 
his  devotion  to  his  wife  and  children,  are  the  out- 
come of  this  quality,  and  its  exercise  is  not  confined 
to  his  domestic  life.  I  have  heard  him  speak  on 
more  than  one  occasion  with  the  utmost  feeling  of 
persons  who  had  been  condemned  to  exile  in  Siberia. 
It  was  perfectly  clear  to  me  from  the  way  in  which 
he  spoke  of  them  that,  had  he  followed  the  dictates 

177 


COURT  LIFE  FROM  WITHIN 

of  his  own  heart,  he  would  have  cancelled  the  sen- 
tences and  pardoned  the  offenders.  I  could  see  that 
the  thought  of  their  sufferings  made  him  suffer  him- 
self, and  that  it  was  only  a  stern  sense  of  duty  that 
made  him  acquiesce  in  penalties  he  regretted. 

The  bulk  of  the  Tsar's  subjects  are  peasants,  and 
he  very  often  spoke  of  their  life  and  their  customs. 
Indeed,  he  displayed  the  keenest  interest  in  plans  to 
better  their  condition  and  to  raise  their  standard  of 
culture.  Sovereigns,  I  have  noticed,  carefully  es- 
chew any  reference  to  questions  which  they  and  their 
ministers  are  unable  to  solve,  and  it  is  to  me  signifi- 
cant that  neither  the  Tsar  nor  the  Kaiser  has  ever 
spoken  to  me  of  the  Polish  question.  The  Tsar  was, 
however,  aware  that  the  Bourbons  and  the  great 
Polish  famil}-  of  Zamoyski  are  now  connected — my 
cousin.  Princess  Caroline  of  Bourbon,  married  a 
Zamoyski — and  he  very  delicately  appointed  a  gen- 
tleman of  that  family  to  be  in  attendance  on  me 
during  my  stay  in  Petersburg.  From  intercourse 
with  this  gentleman  and  with  other  Poles  I  met  in 
Russia  I  discovered  that  there  is  a  profound  differ- 
ence between  the  Russian  and  the  Polish  character. 
There  always  remains  something  of  the  Asiatic  in 

178 


THE  TSAR  AND  HIS  PEOPLE 

the  Russian,  but  the  Pole  belongs  to  the  West.  He 
has  the  Slav  charm  and  the  Latin  culture.  I  know 
of  nothing  sadder  than  the  tragedy  of  Poland.  That 
splendid  nation,  which  once  saved  Europe  from  the 
Turks,  has  been  parcelled  out  between  three  Em- 
pires, but  neither  the  iron  will  of  the  German  Em- 
peror nor  the  autocratic  power  of  Nicholas  IL  has 
succeeded  in  killing  the  Polish  spirit.  Small  won- 
der that  both  at  Berlin  and  Petersburg  the  subject 
was  not  broached  at  Court.  Since  then  the  war  has 
come.  Will  the  end  of  it  witness  the  resurrection 
of  Poland  as  a  nation*? 

The  Emperor  is  perfectly  well  aware  that  my 
sympathies  are  with  the  democracy.  But  naturally 
I  never  attempted  to  force  my  ideas  upon  him.  I 
am  able  to  understand  that  a  sovereign  who  wields 
absolute  power  and  to  whom  the  most  powerful  of 
his  ministers  is  obliged  to  yield  may  be  necessary  for 
Russia  at  the  present  day.  I  am  convinced  that  the 
world  will  be  happier — princes  and  people  alike — 
when  democracy  has  triumphed,  but  I  realise  that 
in  a  country  like  Russia,  the  bulk  of  whose  popula- 
tion is  unlettered,  it  would  be  foolish,  as  well  as  dan- 
gerous, to  introduce  suddenly  and  without  prepara- 

179 


COURT  LIFE  FROM  WITHIN 

tion  methods  which  arc  successful  in  the  West.  Ed- 
ucation, and  education  alone,  can  establish  the  vic- 
tory of  democracy. 

From  my  home  in  the  capital  of  a  great  people, 
in  whose  motto  is  enshrined  a  profound  belief  in  the 
brotherhood  of  mankind  and  the  essential  equality 
of  prince  and  peasant,  I  look  out  over  Europe  and 
see  the  decay  of  old  institutions  and  the  movements 
which  are  slowly  but  certainly  reducing  those  mon- 
archs  who  still  retain  power  to  the  position  of  dec- 
orative figureheads.  In  Norway  the  process  is  al- 
ready finished,  and,  although  I  confess  that  I  was 
first  surprised,  I  was  immensely  pleased  to  find,  dur- 
ing a  recent  visit  to  King  Haakon  and  Queen  Maud, 
that  they  were  simply  the  first  among  equals.  I  am 
firmly  convinced  that  this  will  be  the  ultimate  form 
of  monarchy  throughout  Europe,  but  long  years 
must  pass  before  the  Russian  people  have  the  culture 
and  political  knowledge  which  make  a  simple  Nor- 
wegian the  equal  of  his  sovereign.  Meanwhile,  it 
is  satisfactory  to  know  that  the  man  guiding  the 
destinies  of  the  Russian  people  possesses  the  fine 
qualities  which  distinguish  Nicholas  II. 


180 


CHAPTER  IX 
THE  REGAL  POSE 

Will  democracy  ever  rule  in  some  countries'?  I 
will  not  dare  to  prophesy,  only  in  so  far  as  there  is 
a  tendency  gradually  spreading  which  gives  hope 
that  in  the  end  it  will  permeate  the  entire  Western 
life.  Many  years  will  be  necessary  for  its  develop- 
ment here  and  there — in  Russia,  for  instance — but 
most  peoples  are  almost  ready  for  the  change,  and 
unless  kings  meet  the  movement  and,  so  to  speak, 
merge  themselves  in  it,  leading  it,  they  will  pass  and 
their  thrones  with  them.  Some  great  crisis  will  oc- 
cur, and  suddenly  the  people  will  themselves  dis- 
place their  dictators. 

But  the  tentacles  of  royalty  are  firmly  fixed  into 
the  beings  of  many  nations.  In  Austria,  for  exam- 
ple, before  the  war  there  was  so  much  royalty  that 
half  the  Austrian  Army  seemed  doing  sentry  duty 
round  the  palaces  of  archdukes.  In  that  country 
there  is  a  vast  amount  of  clericalism  and  a  vast 
amount  of  Court  stupidity,  which,  however  ridicu- 

181 


COURT  LIFE  FROM  WITHIN 

lous  it  may  appear  to  the  outside  observer,  is  really 
the  prop  upon  which  the  monarchy  rests.  I  should 
think  that  the  Court  life  there  must  be  one  degree 
duller  than  in  Spain. 

In  Italy  the  people  are  more  clever;  the  country 
is  alive  and  prospering,  and  the  King  is  sufficiently 
Socialistic  in  his  leanings  to  be  in  sympathy  with  the 
progress  and  the  ambition  which  he  helps  to  direct. 

Unfortunately,  on  our  visit  to  Rome,  we  had  ar- 
ranged, through  our  Ambassador,  to  be  presented 
both  to  the  \''atican  and  to  the  Court;  and  at  the 
eleventh  hour,  before  going  to  the  Vatican,  we  were 
notified  by  letter  that  the  Pope  would  only  receive 
us  on  condition  that  neither  before  nor  after  seeing 
him  should  we  call  on  the  King.  This  stipulation 
had  been  withheld  from  our  Ambassador,  with  char- 
acteristic cleverness,  until  it  could  put  us  in  a  posi- 
tion of  insulting  the  Throne  by  failing  to  keep  an 
appointment  that  we  had  solicited.  We  were  saved 
from  the  awkward  situation  by  a  telegram  that  called 
us  back  to  Spain,  with  the  news  that  my  mother-in- 
law  was  seriously  ill.  But  that  is  one  of  the  things 
that  can  make  the  travels  of  Royalty  not  altogether 
comfortable. 

182 


THE  REGAL  POSE 

The  princes  of  the  house  of  Orleans  have  almost 
all  been  very  clever.  They  are  good  financiers, 
shrewd  politicians,  witty,  and  easy  in  their  address. 
The  late  King  Leopold  of  Belgium  had  these  quali- 
ties in  a  high  degree,  together  with  the  cynicism 
that  often  accompanies  them.  He  was  less  like  a 
king  in  his  palace  than  like  a  banker  in  his  counting- 
house;  and  he  left  Belgium  established  in  wealth. 
When  his  nephew,  the  present  King  Albert,  suc- 
ceeded to  the  throne  it  was  the  problems  of  wealth 
and  the  dissatisfaction  of  the  working  classes  that 
confronted  him.  How  tragic  that  fact  sounds  to- 
day with  the  country  laid  waste  and  despoiled  and 
her  people  scattered.  He  is  one  of  the  few  sover- 
eigns in  Europe  who  have  clearly  seen  the  power  and 
virtue  of  the  modern  Socialist  movement;  and  he 
seemed  to  me  to  be  alone  in  his  ability  to  lead  it 
beneficently  for  itself  and  its  opponents.  He  had 
made  it  an  effective  engine  of  social  reform  instead 
of  a  disruptive  force  of  revolution.  The  King  of 
the  Belgians  is  a  man  of  such  quiet  tact  and  modesty 
that  he  was  little  known  in  Europe,  but  that  did 
not  prevent  him  from  being  one  of  the  wisest  and 
cleverest  of  its  rulers.     Through  a  peaceful  reign 

183 


COURT  LIFE  FROM  WITHIN 

he  would  have  done  much  for  his  country.  Apart 
from  the  share  he  took  in  the  war,  he,  b}-  his  abihty 
as  a  sovereign,  would  have  been  a  factor  to  be  reck- 
oned with  in  w^orld  politics.  As  it  was,  his  success 
so  far  in  the  internal  affairs  of  his  kingdom  could 
give  lessons  to  half  the  Governments  of  Europe. 
If  I  did  not  go,  at  least  twice  a  year,  to  see  for  my- 
self what  he  had  been  doing,  I  had  come  to  feel  that 
I  was  neglecting  my  best  opportunity  of  education. 
There  are  few  kings  for  whom  one  can  feel  that  I 

Another  sovereign  of  the  Orleans  family,  recently 
little  known  but  certain  to  become  important,  is 
King  Ferdinand  of  Bulgaria,  the  strength  of  whose 
secret  hand  was  shown  in  the  downfall  of  the  Turk- 
ish power  in  Europe.  He  is  a  son  of  the  only  daugh- 
ter of  Louis  Philippe  of  France,  and  therefore  my 
cousin  by  marriage;  and  I  knew  him  intimately  be- 
fore he  was  called  to  the  throne  of  Bulgaria.  He 
has  made  that  country  almost  single-handed,  build- 
ing it  up  commercially,  attracting  mone}-  to  it  for 
railroads  and  industrial  development,  and  adminis- 
tering its  finances  as  ably  as  he  administers  his  own 
jirivate  fortune.  His  cleverness  in  using  rightly  for 
his  own  ends  circumstances  that  would  pass  unper- 

184 


THE  REGAL  POSE 

ceived  by  any  one  less  astute,  made  him  one  of  the 
marked  men  of  Europe.  He  used  to  flatter  me  that 
I  was  the  only  person  who  understood  hun;  and  I 
could  reply  that  it  was  lucky  for  him,  since,  if  others 
understood  what  he  was  trying  to  do,  they  would 
surely  stop  him.     He  has  a  wonderful  mind. 

The  lives  of  these  men,  who  are  kings  in  fact  as 
well  as  in  name,  are  as  full  and  interesting  as  the 
life  of  any  one  who  has  work  to  do  and  power  to  do 
it.  They  have  something  to  compensate  them  for 
the  restrictions  of  grandeur  and  the  cramping  stiff- 
nesses of  pomp.  Their  dignity  has  cause.  Their 
isolation  is  inevitable.  But,  for  every  one  of  these, 
there  are  hundreds  of  little  princes  and  princesses, 
grand  dukes  and  archdukes,  and  such  minor  person- 
ages of  royal  blood,  who  are  less  free  in  their  lives 
than  kings  are  and  have  nothing  to  occupy  their 
mental  idleness. 

It  astonished  me  as  I  went  among  them  to  find 
them  supported  by  a  consciousness  of  self-importance 
that  seemed  to  me  pathetic.  I  could  name  a  score 
of  such  persons,  quite  unknown,  who  would  never 
believe  that  their  existence  is  not  a  matter  of  eager 
public  interest  to  the  whole  world.     They  apply 

185 


COURT  LIFE  FROM  WITHIN 

themselves  to  the  observances  of  royal  etiquette  de- 
votedly. They  patronise  and  condescend  to  the 
lesser  orders  of  mankind  with  a  touching  sense  of 
their  own  supremacy.  They  defend  themselves 
jealously  in  their  degrees  of  royal  blood  and  prece- 
dence, and  see  themselves  as  conspicuously  exalted 
as  if  they  had  high  scats  in  some  hierarchy  of  heaven 
just  below  the  Eternal  Throne. 

After  a  little  experience,  one  can  recognise  these 
lesser  royalties  at  a  glance  and  pick  them  out  in 
a  crowded  drawing-room.  They  all  have  the 
same  high-shouldered  carriage,  stiff-backed,  with  a 
stretched  neck  to  carry  a  raised  chin.  Their  lips 
smile  very  easily,  but  their  eyes  almost  never.  They 
are  accustomed  to  being  stared  at;  indeed,  they 
would  be  disappointed  if  they  did  not  attract  stares; 
and  they  seem  to  present  their  faces  even  to  a  pri- 
vate company,  not  nervously,  nor  quite  self-con- 
sciously, but  with  an  expression  of  friendly  and  im- 
penetrable self-complacency  that  becomes  recognis- 
able as  the  royal  mask.  They  are  usually,  because 
of  their  training,  rather  stupid,  but  their  dignity 
makes  them  look  v/ise.  They  are  always  concerned 
with  their  own  popularity,  are  gracious  by  policy, 

186 


King  Albert  of  Belgiuim 


THE  REGAL  POSE 

and  try  to  leave  each  individual  with  the  impression 
that  he  has  been  personally  distinguished  by  their 
notice.  They  are  not  only  playing  a  part,  but  they 
believe  that  they  are  really  the  part  they  play;  so 
that  any  true  conversation  with  them  is  largely  im- 
possible. Their  minds,  like  their  faces,  are  always 
making  a  public  appearance  and  considering  effect. 
When  they  are  alone  with  their  own  kind,  they 
are  free  to  talk  of  the  matters  that  really  interest 
them,  and  it  is  a  conversation  as  typical  as  the  little 
gossip  of  a  group  of  nuns.  They  have  no  opinions 
to  express  on  the  problems  of  government;  "it  is  a 
duty  that  they  owe  the  crown"  to  express  none,  and 
consequently  they  rarely  acquire  any.  They  know 
little  of  the  world  around  them,  and  say  less.  To 
arrive  at  any  speaking  acquaintance  with  matters  of 
literature  and  music  and  art,  one  must  make  a  men- 
tal effort  in  study,  to  which  the  Court  life  of  busy 
empty-mindedness  is  not  conducive.  They  con- 
verse, therefore,  about  royalty  only — the  latest  mar- 
riage, the  most  recent  engagement,  the  death  of  this 
prince,  the  illness  of  that,  a  birth  in  Spain,  an  arch- 
duke's affair  with  a  mistress  in  Austria — family  hap- 
penings considered  only  in  their  family  aspect,  as 

187 


COURT  LIFE  FROM  WITHIN 

idle  as  gossip,  largely  innocent,  wholly  uninteresting. 
I  can  understand  the  respect  paid  to  power;  and 
royalty  with  power  is  far  from  ridiculous,  even  when 
it  is  unintelligent;  but  royalty  without  power  is  as 
great  a  bore  as  an  aristocracy  without  the  estate  to 
support  its  pride.  We  are  no  longer  in  the  feudal 
ages.  Money  has  now  the  rule  that  used  to  belong 
to  rank.  And  the  chief  use  of  the  lesser  royalties 
seems  to  be  to  dignify  wealth  by  associating  with  it. 
Hence  the  court  that  the  rich  pay  to  them — the  eager- 
ness to  entertain  them,  to  take  them  on  private 
yachts,  to  amuse  them  with  automobile  trips,  to  pro- 
mote their  fortunes  on  the  Stock  Exchange,  and  even 
to  give  them  money  if  they  will  take  it.  They  are 
usually  too  proud,  of  course;  and  the  money  is  made 
by  canny  aristocrats  who  charge  wealthy  "climbers" 
for  introductions  to  Court  circles.  The  unfortunate 
royalties  stifle  in  stuffy  drawing-rooms,  smiling  on 
the  compliments  of  aspiring  riches,  without  even  re- 
ceiving a  little  "tip"  for  their  complacency.  Life 
in  Court  was  little  to  my  taste;  I  had  found  it  no 
place  for  any  one  with  an  instinct  for  independence. 
But  the  accepted  life  of  royalty  outside  of  Court 
seemed  to  me  worse.     It  was  a  life  for  gulls. 

188 


THE  REGAL  POSE 

When  my  father  was  on  his  death-bed,  at  the 
age  of  eighty,  my  mother  asked  him,  as  she  was  leav- 
ing the  sick-room :  "When  do  you  want  me  to  come 
back  to  see  you^"  He  replied:  "No  more.  No 
one.  Let  me,  at  last,  have  my  desire  for  solitude. 
Let  me  die  alone."     And  he  did. 

Before  these  years  of  travel  were  over,  I  had  come 
to  the  same  conclusion  about  myself.  Since  there 
was  no  life  that  I  thought  worth  living  in  Courts, 
and  no  social  life  for  ro)'alty  outside  the  Courts,  I 
would  have  solitude.  But  it  is  easier  to  find  solitude 
to  die  in  than  solitude  to  live  in.  By  this  time  I 
had  two  sons  growing  up,  whose  careers  had  to  be 
considered;  I  could  not  cut  them  off  from  the  op- 
portunities of  advancement  that  would  come  from 
powerful  friends  and  Court  influence.  I  was  very 
happy  with  them,  in  a  companionship  that  had  none 
of  the  lack  of  intimate  parental  affection  so  often 
denied  to  royalty;  and  I  began  to  live  for  them, 
contentedly,  as  mothers  do. 

After  all,  that  is  the  real  life — the  natural  life — 
and  the  best  of  life  while  it  lasts. 


189 


CHAPTER  X 
THE  SCANDINAVIAN  DEMOCRACIES 

"I  AM  SO  glad  that  I  am  queen  of  a  country  in  which 
everybody  loves  simplicity." 

This  was  the  testimony  to  the  charm  of  Norway 
which  Queen  Maud  gave  me,  when  I  saw  her  in  her 
little  home  near  Christiania  in  the  autumn  of  1913. 
She  spoke  with  enthusiasm  of  her  adopted  country, 
and  I  was  not  in  the  least  surprised,  for  Norway 
is  undoubtedly  the  happiest  and  most  progressive 
country  in  Europe.  Indeed,  if  anybody  wants  to 
know  what  life  will  be  like  in  the  good  time  that  is 
coming,  when  Capitalism  will  be  dead  and  Democ- 
racy triumphant  on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic,  let 
him  go  to  Norway  and  study  its  institutions  and  the 
life  of  its  people. 

"When  I  am  at  Lourdes,"  said  a  devout  Catholic, 
'T  do  not  believe — I  know."  And  when  I  was  in 
Norway  I  did  not  need  to  make  an  act  of  faith  in 
democracy,  as  I  must  in  Paris  or  New  York  or  Lon- 

190 


THE  SCANDINAVIAN  DEMOCRACIES 

don;  I  saw  for  myself  that  a  nation  is  happier  when 
its  life  is  based  on  democratic  principles. 

"How  deadly  dull  I"  said  a  fashionable  woman  to 
me,  when  I  told  her  of  the  simplicity  of  life  in 
Christiania.  "Surely  Your  Royal  Highness  does 
not  want  to  eliminate  the  colour  and  brilliancy  of 
life  I" 

She  had  never  realised  that  the  glitter  and  mag- 
nificence of  Society  in  great  capitals  can  only  exist 
against  a  background  of  misery  and  starvation. 
Norway  is  not  a  wealthy  country  and  it  does  not 
afford  capitalists  opportunities  for  piling  up  for- 
tunes. Nobody  is  very  rich,  and  everybody  appears 
to  have  a  sufficiency.  The  cosmopolitan  plutocrats, 
who  corrupt  the  Society  of  Western  Europe,  would 
be  wretched  there,  and,  in  point  of  fact,  they  avoid 
a  country  in  which  they  are  perfectly  well  aware 
they  would  be  unable  to  display  their  wealth.  And 
if  the  citizens  of  Christiania  are  deprived  of  the 
sight  of  millionaires  darting  about  the  town  in  il- 
luminated motor-cars,  with  jewelled  wives  and 
daughters,  they  are  compensated  for  the  loss  by  the 
knowledge  that,  thanks  to  the  equitable  distribution 
of  such  wealth  as  the  country  possesses,  crime  and 

191 


COl  RT  LIFE  FROM  WITHIN 

robbery  arc  practically  unknown.  Education  and 
common  sense  have  broken  clown  the  barriers  of 
pride  of  purse  and  pride  of  rank,  which  separate  man 
and  man  in  other  countries,  and  the  King  himself 
is  simply  the  first  among  equals. 

When  the  Norwegian  people  determined  that  the 
industrial  and  commercial  life  of  the  country  should 
no  longer  be  hampered  by  Sweden,  and  declared  their 
independence,  they  placed  a  king  at  the  head  of  the 
State.  The)^  were  clever  enough  to  see  that  the 
country  would  have  more  prestige  in  the  e)'es  of 
Europe  as  a  monarchy  than  as  a  republic,  and  they 
were  wise  enough  to  give  the  king  no  power.  Pos- 
sibly they  thought  that  a  prince,  who,  if  the  expres- 
sion be  allowed  me,  is  born  to  the  business,  would 
make  a  more  effective  figure-head  than  a  commoner, 
and  they  may  have  considered  that  the  peaceful  suc- 
cession of  hereditary  monarchs  is  less  agitating  to 
the  nerves  of  the  nation  than  recurring  presidential 
elections.  However  this  may  be,  their  king  is  to 
them  what  their  flag  is:  a  symbol  of  national  unity. 
Both  are  saluted  with  respect,  but  neither  one  nor 
the  other  is  invested  with  power. 

192 


THE  SCANDINAVIAN  DEMOCRACIES 

King  Haakon's  fine  figure  and  handsome  face 
make  him  look  the  part  he  has  to  play.  He  is  a 
man  of  great  tact  and  kindliness,  and  has  the  sim- 
ple tastes  characteristic  of  the  Danish  Royal  Family. 
To  these  advantages  the  King  adds  the  supreme  one 
of  having  a  clever  Queen,  who  helps  him  wisely  and 
loyally  in  his  work.  Their  son,  little  Prince  Olaf, 
is  utterly  charming  and,  in  spite  of  being  an  only 
child,  not  the  least  spoilt. 

I  had  not  seen  Queen  Maud  in  her  kingdom  until 
I  went  to  Norway  in  the  autumn  of  1913,  and  I 
wondered  whether  her  rise  from  the  rank  of  mere 
"Royal  Highness"  to  that  of  a  "Majesty"  would 
have  altered  or  spoilt  her.  She  was  staying  at  a 
little  chateau  near  Christiania  when  I  arrived  in  the 
city,  and  she  asked  me  to  come  out  and  have  lunch- 
eon with  her.  When  a  royal  carriage  arrived  at 
my  hotel  to  take  me  to  the  country,  and  I  noticed 
that  the  servants  wore  plain,  dark  liveries,  instead 
of  the  regal  scarlet,  I  began  to  feel  that  the  charming 
Maud  had  not  changed.  Half  an  hour's  drive 
brought  me  to  the  chateau,  and  as  the  Queen  wel- 
comed me  I  felt  ashamed  of  the  suspicions  I  had 

193 


COURT  LIFE  FROM  WITHIN 

entertained,  and  realised  that  she  remains  the  same 
simple  and  unaffected  girl  I  used  to  know  in 
England. 

"I'm  so  glad  you've  come,"  she  said,  and  as  she 
spoke  I  heard  in  her  voice  and  saw  in  her  manner 
the  charm  she  has  inherited  from  her  mother,  Queen 
Alexandra. 

The  chateau  is  a  small  house  of  one  story,  stand- 
ing in  a  public  park.  A  plot  of  ground  has  been 
railed  off  round  the  house,  so  that  the  King  and 
Queen  may  have  a  garden  in  which  they  can  enjoy 
privacy.  Not  that  they  are  annoyed,  like  most 
kings  and  queens,  with  demonstrative  manifestations 
of  loyalty.  The  Norwegians  contrive  to  make  life 
agreeable  for  the  Royal  Family  by  allowing  them 
to  go  about  the  countryside  or  through  the  streets 
of  the  capital  as  freely  as  ordinary  citizens.  Queen 
Maud  revels  in  her  new  liberty. 

"I  find  it  so  nice  to  be  able  to  go  out  shopping 
without  any  fuss,"  she  said,  and  told  me  that  she 
could  go  into  a  shop  in  Christiania  without  anybody 
taking  any  notice  of  her,  buy  what  she  wanted,  and 
leave  with  her  parcels  tucked  under  her  arm  to  walk 
back  to  the  palace. 

194 


THE  SCANDINAVIAN  DEMOCRACIES 

I  could  understand  her  delight  better  than  most 
people,  for  in  Madrid  I  have  experienced  the  misery 
of  knowing  that  I  can  not  get  in  or  out  of  a  carriage 
without  attracting  a  small  crowd.  To  find  oneself 
perpetually  a  public  show  is  beyond  words  exas- 
perating. 

Queen  Maud's  Court  consists  of  two  ladies-in- 
waiting  and  a  Grand  Mistress,  a  suite  which  is  no 
larger  than  that  of  the  least  important  of  the  numer- 
ous Austrian  archduchesses.  And,  moreover,  these 
ladies  do  not  make  deferential  curtsies  to  Her 
Majesty.  The  Queen  shakes  hands  with  them  when 
she  meets  them,  and  treats  them,  not  as  glorified 
servants,  but  as  friends.  The  point  may  appear 
trivial,  but  it  is  worth  mentioning,  for  it  shows  with 
what  tact  a  princess,  accustomed  to  the  etiquette  and 
the  splendour  of  the  English  Court,  has  adapted  her- 
self to  the  spirit  of  a  democratic  people. 

"You  were  perfectly  right,"  she  said  to  me,  "in 
what  you  used  to  tell  me  about  the  happiness  of  sim- 
plicity." 

"Of  course  I  was  right,"  I  said,  "and  I  do  not  be- 
lieve you  would  care  to  go  back  to  the  old  Court 
life." 

195 


COimX  LIFE  FROM  WITHIN 

''I  am  imich  hapj)icr  in  this  life,"  she  said,  and 
then  it  was  that  she  told  me  how  glad  she  was  to 
be  Queen  of  a  country  in  which  everybody  loves 
simplicity. 

It  was  obvious  to  me  that  both  the  King  and 
Queen  adore  the  fascinating  little  Olaf;  but  I  no- 
ticed that  he  has  been  very  well  brought  up  and  is 
very  obedient.  He  is  being  educated  with  Nor- 
wegian boys  of  his  own  age  and  leads  a  healthy 
out-of-door  life. 

"I  want  you  to  see  Olaf  driving  the  motor-car 
his  grandmother  has  sent  him,"  said  the  Queen;  and 
Queen  Alexandra's  present,  the  tiniest  and  most 
dainty  little  car  imaginable,  was  brought  round  to 
the  door  of  the  chateau.  The  little  prince  made  a 
splendid  chauffeur,  and  evidently  thoroughly  en- 
joyed rushing  round  the  park  in  his  car. 

I  left  the  chateau  feeling  that  I  had  had  a  glimpse 
of  ideal  family  life,  and  thoroughly  convinced  that 
the  democratic  Norwegian  Court  is  the  nicest  in 
Europe. 

I  do  not  in  the  least  mind  confessing  that  when 
I  advocate  democratic  principles  I  have  the  interests 
of  the  royal  personages  at  heart  as  well  as  those  of 

196 


THE  SCANDINAVIAN  DEMOCRACIES 

^heir  peoples.  There  are  plenty  of  princes  and 
princesses,  bound  hand  and  foot  by  etiquette  and 
galling  restrictions,  who,  whatever  their  present 
views  may  be,  will  welcome  the  liberty  democracy 
will  bring  them.  Happy  King  Haakon  and  Queen 
Maud;  although  they  are  addressed  as  "Your  Majes- 
ties," they  are  allowed  to  live  in  a  tiny  red  bunga- 
low, up  in  the  mountains  at  Holm  Kelm,  when 
winter  comes,  and  there  they  and  Prince  Olaf  dart 
about  on  skis,  talking  to  everybody,  making  every 
one  happy,  happy  themselves  in  being  three  Nor- 
wegian citizens. 

And  beyond  the  circle  of  the  Court  the  constitu- 
tion of  Norwegian  society  is  utterly  different  from 
that  of  society  in  the  more  powerful  European  coun- 
tries. Both  the  law  and  society  regard  woman  as 
in  every  respect  the  equal  of  man.  Women  have 
the  same  civic  rights  as  men  and  use  them.  At  the 
last  parliamentary  elections,  in  1913,  75  per  cent, 
of  the  women  of  the  towns  who  had  the  right  to  vote 
used  it;  indeed  the  proportion  of  women  who  did 
their  duty  as  citizens  and  recorded  their  votes  was 
higher  than  that  of  men.  All  the  higher  professions 
are  open  to  women,  and  at  the  present  time  the  most 

197 


COURT  LIFE  FROM  WITHIN 

important  of  the  professors  at  the  university  is  a 
woman  and  the  leading  lawyer  connected  with  the 
Supreme  Tribunal  is  also  a  woman.  The  Norwe- 
gians refuse  to  tolerate  cheap  female  labour;  if  a 
woman  does  the  same  work  as  a  man  she  gets  the 
same  pay. 

Society  is  equally  just.  It  does  not  apply  one 
standard  of  morals  to  man  and  another  to  woman. 
Both  are  judged  by  the  same  standard,  and  a  girl 
does  not  lose  her  position  in  society  for  conduct 
which  in  other  countries  is  blamed  in  a  woman  and 
condoned  in  a  man.  Some  Norwegian  couples  pre- 
fer to  contract  free  unions  instead  of  legal  marriages, 
and  now  that  the  influence  of  Lutheranism  on  the 
life  of  the  country  is  practically  dead,  society  does 
not  look  at  such  unions  askance.  Married  and  un- 
married couples  live  in  peace  and  associate  freely. 
In  a  country  where  everybody  works  there  is  little 
time  or  opportunity  for  the  development  of  crimes 
passioncls,  so  if  a  couple  find  that  they  have  made 
a  mistake  and  that  life  in  common  is  too  difficult, 
they  just  part  without  quarrelling  and  build  up  their 
lives  anew. 

The  happy  relations  existing  between  the  men 
198 


King  Haakox  of  Norway 


THE  SCANDINAVIAN  DEMOCRACIES 

and  women  of  Norway  are,  I  am  convinced,  largely 
due  to  the  fact  that  they  are  educated  together  at 
school  and  in  the  university.  The  equality  of  male 
and  female  students  at  the  university  seems  to  be 
symbolised  by  the  wearing  of  identical  caps  of  the 
same  gay  colours.  From  childhood  they  grow  up 
together  and  become  good  comrades,  understanding 
each  other  thoroughly  and  without  arriere  pensce^ 
having  the  same  moral  code  and  the  same  views  of 
life.  In  most  countries  boys  and  girls  are  segre- 
gated apart  and  only  allowed  to  meet  under  the 
supervision  of  their  elders.  The  system  is  not  a 
good  one.  Indeed,  I  have  often  thought  that  noth- 
ing gives  a  girl's  brain  such  a  wrong  twist  as  the 
false  view  given  her  at  school  about  the  companion- 
ship of  men.  Why  perpetually  dread  man  and  see 
in  him  only  the  seducer*?  By  doing  so  I  believe  we 
very  often  wake  up  in  him  instincts  that  might  other- 
wise lie  dormant. 

The  education  the  girls  and  boys  receive  together 
is  an  excellent  one.  Norwegians  understand  the  im- 
portance of  acquiring  foreign  languages,  which  they 
require  in  commerce  and  for  dealing  with  the  numer- 
ous foreign  tourists  who  make  their  beautiful  fiords 

199 


COITRT  LIFE  FROM  WITHIN 

and  mountains  a  holiday  playground.  Hence  both 
English  and  German  are  taught  in  all  the  schools, 
and  the  instruction  given  is  so  good  that  the  children 
actually  learn  to  converse  in  these  languages.  More 
than  once  I  was  astonished  to  find  that  a  cabman 
could  answer  me  in  English  or  German, 

The  Norwegians  are  a  vigorous  and  hardy  race. 
In  their  veins  flows  the  blood  of  Vikings,  and  they 
are  determined  that  the  nation  shall  not  deteriorate 
physically.  With  this  end  in  view  the  law  provides 
for  the  protection  of  the  mother  during  her  time  of 
expectation  and  for  her  support  and  comfort  during 
the  six  weeks  following  the  birth  of  her  child. 
Moreover,  careful  provision  is  made  for  the  up- 
bringing of  children  born  outside  wedlock,  and 
neither  father  nor  mother  is  allowed  to  shirk  the  re- 
sponsibility of  parentage. 

The  separation  of  Norway  and  Sweden  was  due 
to  the  desire  of  the  Norwegians,  whose  merchant 
fleet  is  twice  the  size  of  the  Swedish,  to  have  their 
commercial  interests  abroad  properly  looked  after  by 
an  independent  consular  service.  This  was  the  for- 
mal cause  of  separation,  but  undoubtedly  the  marked 
difference  between  the  social  organisation  of  the  two 

200 


THE  SCANDINAVIAN  DEMOCRACIES 

countries  facilitated  the  unloosing  of  the  bonds  that 
held  them  together.  Sweden  still  has  an  aristoc- 
racy, and  the  nobles  who  sit  in  the  Upper  House  of 
the  Swedish  Parliament  are  able  to  check  in  some 
degree  the  advance  of  democracy.  Yet  in  their  love 
of  simplicity  the  two  nations  are  alike.  This  was 
made  clear  to  me  in  rather  an  amusing  way  soon 
after  my  arrival  in  Stockholm  during  my  autumn 
tour.  I  was  going  to  the  theatre  with  a  friend,  and 
when  she  arrived  to  fetch  me  I  was  getting  into  an 
evening  gown. 

"Is  Your  Royal  Highness  going  to  wear  a  low 
dress?"  she  said  in  a  manner  that  made  me  feel  I 
was  doing  something  thoroughly  unconventional. 

''Oughtn't  I  to?"  I  asked. 

"We  do  not  go  in  evening-dress  to  the  theatre," 
she  said. 

"Then  what  am  I  to  wear?"  I  asked. 

"Just  a  skirt  and  blouse,"  she  said. 

And  accordingly  in  a  skirt  and  blouse  I  went.  It 
was  rather  a  pretty  blouse — I  confess  that  I  love 
pretty  things — and  when  I  got  into  the  theatre  I  felt 
just  a  trifle  overdressed. 

"What  sensible  people  you  Swedish  women  are  I" 

201 


COURT  LIFE  FROM  WITHIN 

I  said  to  my  friend,  when  I  looked  round  the  theatre 
and  saw  how  simply  the  women  were  dressed.  "You 
save  hours  and  hours  which  women  in  London  and 
Paris  fritter  away  at  their  toilet-tables." 

In  point  of  fact  the  Swedish  woman  has  not  usu- 
ally either  the  time  or  money  required  to  turn  herself 
into  a  woman  of  fashion.  And  even  if  she  had,  she 
is  too  sensible  to  make  her  appearance  the  absorbing 
care  of  life.  Careers  which  are  closed  to  women  in 
other  lands  are  open  to  her,  and  she  prefers  to  be  in- 
dependent and  to  earn  her  living.  At  the  present 
time  the  Swedish  women  have  not  been  granted  elec- 
toral rights,  but  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  they  will 
obtain  the  same  right  as  men  in  the  course  of  time. 
The  Conservative  party  in  the  Upper  House  shrinks 
from  yielding  to  the  demands  of  the  women,  fear- 
ing that  their  votes  will  strengthen  the  Socialists  in 
the  Lower  House.  But  the  nobles  are  certain  to  do 
justice  to  women  sooner  or  later,  and  at  the  present 
time  there  is  only  a  majority  of  twelve  in  the  Upper 
House  against  the  granting  of  the  suffrage  to 
women. 

As  it  is,  that  Upper  House  puts  too  strong  a 
brake  on  the  wheels  ot   progress.     At  one  Swedish 

202 


THE  SCANDINAVIAN  DEMOCRACIES 

railway-station  I  saw  a  number  of  emigrants  who 
were  starting  for  America.  They  did  not  display 
the  least  sorrow  at  leaving  their  native  land;  on  the 
contrary,  they  were  bearing  wreaths  of  flowers  and 
singing  joyfully,  as  if  they  were  only  too  thankful  to 
get  away  from  Sweden.  It  was  a  sad  and  eloquent 
testimony  to  the  evils  that  still  mar  the  social  struc- 
ture of  Sweden.  Indeed,  the  stream  of  emigrants 
who  cross  the  Atlantic  to  enrich  the  life  of  America 
with  their  work  is  so  great  and  so  constant  that  a 
Royal  Commission  has  been  endeavouring  to  find  out 
its  causes.  In  their  report  the  Commissioners  state 
that  the  principal  couse  of  emigration  is  the  failure 
of  the  Government  to  accelerate  legislation  for  the 
improvement  of  the  conditions  of  the  working  classes. 
In  the  circumstances,  it  is  but  natural  that  there 
should  be  a  powerful  Socialist  party  in  the  country. 
The  Crown  Prince  is  clever  enough  to  see  that  this 
party  is  one  which  will  increase  in  power  with  the 
lapse  of  time,  but  his  efforts  to  establish  friendly 
relations  with  its  leaders  have  not  been  very  well 
received.  He  talks  good-humouredly  and  shakes 
hands  with  prominent  Socialists,  but  the  party  ap- 
pears to  see  in  these  little  attentions  nothing  more 

203 


COimT  LIFE  FROM  WITHIN 

than  a  symptom  of  the  future  king's  fear  ot  the  ris- 
ing power  of  the  working  classes. 

The  Court  of  Sweden  is,  however,  characterised  by 
Scandinavian  simplicity,  although  this  is  naturally 
not  so  strongly  marked  as  at  the  ideal  Court  of  King 
Haakon  and  Queen  Maud.  The  Queen  of  Sweden's 
health  is  too  bad  to  allow  her  to  appear  in  public. 
Hence  the  principal  figure  at  Court,  apart  from  the 
King,  is  the  Crown  Princess,  before  her  marriage 
Princess  Margaret  of  Connaught,  and  she  has  con- 
trived to  give  it  just  a  touch  of  the  elegance  of  the 
Court  of  St.  James's.  I  lunched  with  her  when  I 
was  in  Stockholm,  and  she  told  me  how  much  she 
loves  her  Swedish  life.  Her  marriage  is  a  very 
hap{iy  one.  King  Gustav  has  inherited  from  his 
father  a  great  charm  of  manner  and  a  fine  figure, 
which  devotion  to  tennis  helps  him  to  keep.  He  is 
fond  of  all  sorts  of  sport  and  is  an  excellent  shot. 

I  used  to  see  a  good  deal  of  the  late  King  Oscar. 
His  French  ancestry  and  his  personal  charm  made 
him  very  popular  in  France,  a  country  he  loved,  and 
during  his  numerous  visits  to  Paris  I  had  the  op- 
portunity of  getting  to  know  him  well,  and  I  became 
very  fond  of  him.     I  was  in  Sweden  in  1897,  travel- 

204 


THE  SCANDINAVIAN  DEMOCRACIES 

ling  incognito,  and  I  remember  sitting  down  to  rest 
one  day  within  sight  of  Sophie  Rue,  King  Oscar's 
Norman  villa,  and,  as  I  looked  at  the  peaceful  home 
of  my  old  friend,  I  hoped  that  his  last  years  would 
not  be  embittered  by  the  dissolution  of  the  union  be- 
tween Sweden  and  Norway.  But  the  blow  came  to 
the  "poet  king,"  whose  spirit  seemed  to  live  above 
the  dull  realities  of  life,  and  it  came  when  Jie  was 
old  and  broken  down  with  the  illness  which  at  last 
caused  his  death.  Kings  must  yield  to  the  imperious 
will  of  democracy,  and  I  look  forward  to  the  time 
when  Sweden  will  have  the  advantages  enjoyed  by 
her  sister  kingdom. 

I  visited  Denmark  as  well  as  Norway  and  Sweden 
that  autumn,  and  there  also  I  remarked  the  growth  of 
democratic  ideas.  It  is  a  peaceful  country,  and  the 
souls  of  the  people  seem  as  clear  as  their  blue  eyes. 
The  Danes  are  a  kind,  industrious  and  simple  race, 
and,  if  they  strike  one  as  being  less  hardy  and  vigor- 
ous than  the  other  Scandinavian  races,  they  certainly 
have  the  same  courteous  manners  as  the  Swedes  and 
the  Norwegians. 

The  first  time  that  I  visited  Denmark  King  Chris- 
tian, the  father  of  Queen  Alexandra  and  the  Empress 

205 


COURT  LIFE  FROM  WITHIN 

Marie,  was  reigning,  and  the  castle,  in  which  his 
large  family  used  to  assemble  for  those  reunions 
which  he  loved,  was  looked  on  by  the  Danes  with  a 
sort  of  reverence.  But  I  remember  that  once,  when 
I  was  travelling  incognito,  I  drove  past  the  castle  in 
a  cab,  and  the  friendly  driver,  anxious  to  oblige  a 
tourist,  told  me  that  a  great  family  gathering  was 
taking  place  there.  He  reeled  off  the  names  of  the 
world-famous  personages  who  had  gathered  round 
the  King,  and  he  did  so  with  as  much  indifference  as 
a  London  cabman  displayed  when  he  pointed  out 
Mme.  Tussaud's  to  me  the  first  time  I  was  in  Lon- 
don, and  casually  explained  that  wax  figures  were 
kept  there.  The  attitude  of  the  Danish  cabman  to- 
wards the  Royal  Family,  which  seemed  to  me  curious 
years  ago,  appears  to  be  that  of  most  Danes  at  the 
present  time.  They  have  ceased  to  take  any  par- 
ticular interest  in  the  doings  of  their  Sovereign  and 
his  relations.  Nothing  strikes  me  more,  as  I  go 
about  Europe,  than  the  fact  that,  if  I  may  be  al- 
lowed the  expression,  the  market  value  of  princes 
and  princesses  has  enormously  decreased, 

I  went  to  an  hotel  in  Copenhagen,  and  I  had  not 
206 


THE  SCANDINAVIAN  DEMOCRACIES 

been  long  in  the  capital  before  a  card,  inscribed  with 
a  single  Danish  word,  was  brought  to  me.  I  stared 
at  it,  not  recognising  the  name  and  wondering  who 
it  was  had  been  to  see  me.  Then  it  suddenly 
dawned  on  me  that  the  word  on  the  card  was  simply 
the  Danish  for  "Queen."  Her  Majesty  had  been  to 
see  me,  and,  of  course,  I  went  to  see  her.  The  Royal 
Family  appears  now  to  live  in  retirement,  and  its 
members  form  a  small  caste,  penned  off  from  the 
rest  of  mankind  by  their  rank.  Their  chief  amuse- 
ment seems  to  be  paying  calls  on  each  other.  Most 
of  them  live  at  their  country  villas  and  chateaux, 
and  in  these  pleasant  homes  there  is  a  constant  suc- 
cession of  cousinly  meetings,  when  family  news  is 
exchanged,  and  while  the  children  play  the  elders 
take  a  stroll  in  the  park  surrounding  the  house  at 
which  the  family  gathering  is  taking  place. 

The  King  displays  that  peculiar  form  of  wit  which 
I  have  often  noticed  is  characteristic  of  crowned 
heads  who  have  lived  much  in  retirement.  With 
them  the  gaiety  of  childhood  seems,  with  the  passing 
of  the  years,  to  turn  into  a  curious  spirit  of  mockery. 
Trifles  create  shouts  of  laughter,  enlivening  the  fam- 

207 


COURT  LIFE  FROM  WITHIN 

ily  circle  and  confusing  those  who  arc  unacquainted 
with  the  type  of  witticisms  which  goes  down  in  royal 
circles. 

And  beyond  the  tranquil  enclosures  of  the  royal 
parks  the  Danish  people  is  moving  surely  and 
steadily  towards  a  broader  and  more  democratic  lite 
tlian  it  has  hitherto  enjoyed.  And  women  are  in 
the  forefront  of  the  movement.  The  Danish  women 
refuse  to  be  slaves  of  fashion  and  display  a  cer- 
tain charming  coquetry  in  their  dress.  Numbers  of 
them  earn  their  own  living  and  are  thus  independent 
of  men.  This  is  the  sure  road  for  women  to  take  if 
they  desire  to  have  the  same  rights  and  privileges 
as  men.  As  it  is,  the  Danish  woman  has  established 
for  herself  a  position  which  her  Latin  sisters  may 
well  envy,  and  the  law  secures  her  independence. 
She  will,  I  am  convinced,  be  given  electoral  rights, 
and  she  will  have  no  need  to  resort  to  militant 
methods  to  obtain  them. 

On  the  road  between  Copenhagen  and  Helsingfors 
a  milk-white  villa  stands  out  against  the  faint  blue 
background  of  the  northern  sky.  There  it  was  that 
I  passed  the  happiest  moments  of  my  stay  in  Den- 
mark, and  there  I  found  at  least  two  crowned  heads 

208 


THE  SCANDINAVIAN  DEMOCRACIES 

who  have  remained  human  in  spite  of  the  crushing 
weight  of  the  crowns  they  have  worn  for  so  many 
years.  The  Italian  villa  is  the  home  of  Queen  Alex- 
andra and  the  Empress  Marie,  and  the  two  sisters, 
who  adore  each  other,  are  absolutely  happy  in  each 
other's  society,  and  in  the  simplicity  of  the  life  they 
lead.  They  welcomed  me  with  enthusiasm,  kissed 
me,  and  were  quite  excited  to  have  somebody  to 
whom  they  could  show  their  little  house.  In  the 
sitting-room  they  share  they  both  wanted  to  show 
me  their  special  corners  at  the  same  time. 

''Come  and  see  my  writing-table,"  said  the  Em- 
press, pulling  me  to  her  end  of  the  room. 

"No,"  cried  Queen  Alexandra  gaily,  pulling  me 
in  the  opposite  direction;  "come  and  see  my  writing- 
table." 

How  we  all  laughed  I 

"This  is  my  chair,"  said  the  Empress,  showing  me 
one  in  her  corner  of  the  room. 

"And  this  is  my  chair,"  echoed  the  Queen,  calling 
my  attention  to  the  favourite  chair  in  her  corner. 

I  had  to  see  everything  and  admire  everything. 
The  two  sisters  seemed  particularly  proud  of  their 
kitchen  garden,  and  seemed  to  be  delighted  to  find 

209 


COURT  LIFE  FROM  WITHIN 

that  I  knew  something  about  growing  vegetables.  I 
have  2.  kitchen  garden  of  my  own  in  Normandy, 
where  I  have  a  little  house,  and  we  were  able  to 
compare  notes. 

And  after  we  had  inspected  flowers  and  vegetables 
we  went  through  an  underground  passage,  which 
their  Majesties  have  had  cut  beneath  the  road  that 
divides  the  garden  of  the  cottage  and  the  sea-shore, 
a  tiny  stretch  of  which  has  been  walled  off,  so  that 
the  Empress  and  the  Queen  may  enjoy  it  undis- 
turbed. When  we  were  inside  the  cottage  the  Em- 
press offered  me  a  thin  Russian  cigarette,  and  lit 
one  herself.  Then  Queen  Alexandra  showed  me 
their  tea-kettle  and  the  little  kitchen  in  which  they 
make  their  own  cakes  and  brew  their  own  tea. 

"This  is  where  I  make  my  tea,"  cried  the  Queen. 

"And  this  is  where  I  cut  the  bread-and-butter," 
said  the  Empress. 

They  were  as  happy  as  two  schoolgirls,  revelling 
in  the  simple  life  of  a  home  where  they  can  live 
like  two  ordinary  women,  untrammelled  by  Court 
etiquette  and  without  even  a  single  lady-in-waiting 
to  attend  them. 

After  visiting  the  Norwegian  cottage  I  had  to  see 
210 


THE  SCANDINAVIAN  DEMOCRACIES 

a  new  marvel.  We  went  down  to  the  beach,  and  the 
two  sisters  explained  to  me  that  it  was  a  splendid 
place  for  picking  up  bits  of  amber.  I  had  seen  so 
much  amber  in  the  Castle  of  Rosenberg  and  in  the 
shops  of  Copenhagen  that  it  seemed  improbable  that 
there  could  be  any  more  in  the  Baltic.  Neverthe- 
less, there  appears  to  be  plenty  left,  for  both  the 
Empress  and  the  Queen  showed  me  the  boxes  in 
which  they  store  the  treasure  they  find  on  the  shore. 
The  Empress  is  luckier  in  finding  amber  than  the 
Queen,  and  her  box  contained  more  than  her  sister's. 

"It  is  most  unfair,"  said  the  Queen  gaily. 

"I  always  pick  up  more  than  you  do,"  said  the 
Empress  triumphantly. 

We  searched  for  amber  until  it  was  time  for  me 
to  go,  and  we  enjoyed  ourselves  like  children. 

Both  the  Empress  and  the  Queen  have  played 
the  great  parts  they  have  had  to  fill  on  the  stage  of 
life  with  dignity  and  distinction,  but  they  are  Danes, 
and  they  have  never  lost  the  love  of  simplicity  which 
is  the  most  notable  characteristic  of  the  peoples  of 
Scandinavia.  Now  that  they  can  live  their  lives 
as  they  like,  they  deliberately  leave  their  palaces 
and  spend  a  great  part  of  their  time  more  simply 

211 


COURT  LIFE  FROM  WITHIN 

than  many  commoners.  To  see  their  happiness 
made  me  happier  myself,  and,  indeed,  my  tour  in 
Scandinavia  has  given  me  new  courage.  All  that  I 
saw  and  heard  made  me  feel  that  the  time  will  come 
when  democracy  will  make  many  of  the  crooked 
things  of  this  life  straight. 


2  1  2 


CHAPTER  XI 

THE  COURTS  OF  ITALY 

I  WAS  at  Genoa,  and  one  spring  morning  I  strolled 
through  a  network  of  narrow  streets  to  the  harbour. 
The  sea  was  as  blue  as  a  turquoise,  gleaming  like  a 
jewel  in  the  sunshine,  and  I  could  not  resist  the  temp- 
tation to  hire  a  boat  and  waste  an  hour  gliding  over 
the  enchanted  waves.  The  boatman  who  rowed  me 
was  a  lively  fellow.  Luckily  for  me,  as  I  afterwards 
realised,  he  had  not  the  faintest  idea  who  I  was,  and 
I  let  him  chatter  to  his  heart's  content. 

"The  old  Duke  of  Galliera  gave  many  million 
lire  to  make  that,"  he  said,  indicating,  with  a  jerk 
of  his  head,  the  new  harbour,  hidden  from  sight  by 
the  building  on  the  Molo  Vecchio. 

"The  Duke  of  Galliera,"  he  went  on,  "was  a  fine 
gentleman.  The  Duchess  was  left  a  widow,  and  in- 
herited the  enormous,  the  colossal  fortune  of  her  hus- 
band. And  what  did  she  do*?  Does  the  signora 
know  what  she  did?" 

213 


COURT  LIFE  FROM  WITHIN 

I  did  know,  but  I  thought  it  prudent  to  shake  my 
head. 

The  man  leant  on  his  oars,  and  looked  intently  at 
me. 

"The  Duchess,"  he  said,  "left  the  title  and  every 
lira  she  had,  and  her  palace  in  Bologna,  and  all  the 
estates  of  her  Duchy,  to  foreigners.  A  curse  on 
them !  And  the  Duchess  belonged  to  Genoa ;  she  had 
relatives  in  Genoa.  Everything  went  to  the  Duca 
di  Montpensier,  a  Frenchman  who  had  become  a 
Spaniard,  and  now  it  belongs  to  his  son." 

"Really,"  I  said;  and  I  did  not  mention  that 
the  Due  de  Montpensier  was  my  father-in-law,  and 
that  I  was  actually  Duchess  of  Gallicra. 

"If  I  could  get  hold  of  that  man  and  his  wife, 
although  she  is  an  Infanta  of  Spain,  I  would  kill 
them,"  he  shouted  at  me  fiercely.  "I  would  show 
them  no  mercy." 

On  the  whole  I  was  not  sorry  when  I  found  my- 
self on  land  again,  and  I  am  convinced  that  the  man 
would  have  upset  his  boat  and  let  me  drown,  if  he 
had  discovered  who  I  was.  And  I  have  often  won- 
dered who  he  was;  perhaps  a  relative  of  the  old 
Duchess.     There  was  truth  in  the  story  he  told,  a 

214 


THE  COURTS  OF  ITALY 

mystery  which  neither  I  nor  anybody  else  is  ever 
likely  to  solve.  The  Duke  of  Galliera  had  a  son, 
Philippo  Ferrari,  who  refused  absolutely  to  use  the 
privileges  which  his  birth  bestowed  upon  him. 
What  were  his  reasons,  nobody  knows.  And  why  in 
default  of  the  son,  one  of  the  richest  duchies  in  Italy 
was  left  to  my  father-in-law  is  a  question  which  re- 
mains, and  is  likely  to  remain,  unanswerable.  And 
partly  through  the  strange  connection  of  the  family 
into  which  I  married  with  Italy,  partly  through  my 
love  of  the  most  beautiful  and  romantic  land  in 
Europe,  I  have  lived  there  a  great  deal.  I  used  to 
stay  often  at  the  magnificent  palace  of  the  Galliera 
family  in  Bologna,  a  sumptuous  place  with  vast 
rooms  paved  with  mosaic  and  glittering  with  rare 
marbles.  The  people  of  that  city  of  colonnades  and 
cool  courtyards  took  a  kindlier  view  of  the  new 
owners  of  the  palace  than  the  Genoese  boatman  did, 
and  the  ancient  families  of  the  place  had  that  charm 
of  manner  which  gives  such  a  fascination  to  the  cul- 
tured society  of  Italian  towns.  It  was  a  great  de- 
light to  receive  them,  and  I  used  to  enjoy  the  balls 
and  parties  in  that  wonderful  palace. 

In  most  countries  society  gathers  in  the  capital, 
215 


COURT  LIFE  FROM  WITHIN 

anel  when  there  is  a  Court  it  acts  ns  a  magnet  to 
draw  people  from  the  provinces.  The  unification  of 
Italy,  and  the  erection  of  the  Italian  kingdom,  had 
not  materially  altered  the  structure  of  Italian  society. 
It  remains  what  it  was  when  Italy  was  divided  into 
a  number  of  small  states.  Rome  and  the  Quirinal 
do  not  attract  the  nobles  of  Venice,  or  Florence,  or 
Bologna,  or  of  other  historic  Italian  towns :  they  con- 
tinue to  spend  the  winter  in  the  cities  with  which 
their  families  have  been  associated  for  centuries, 
giving  to  them  a  certain  brilliance  which  is  not  to 
be  found  in  the  provincial  towns  of  France  or  Eng- 
land. 

It  seems  to  be  the  special  prerogative  of  a  Queen 
Mother  to  be  Queen  of  Hearts,  and  Queen  Margher- 
ita  holds  the  same  place  in  the  affection  of  the  Ital- 
ian people  as  beautiful  Queen  Alexandra — has  ever 
a  Queen  been  more  beloved  than  she? — holds  in 
England,  and  the  Empress  Marie  in  Russia.  I  paid 
a  visit  to  her  and  King  Humbert  at  the  Castle  of 
Monza,  their  summer  home  in  the  outskirts  of  the 
town  in  which  the  kings  of  Lombardy  were  crowned, 
and,  although  the  etiquette  of  the  Court  was  severe, 
she  had  a  charm  which  made  one  tolerate  the  restric- 

216 


THE  COURTS  OF  ITALY 

tions  of  palace  life.  Those  about  her  used  to  com- 
plain that  she  hardly  ever  sat  down.  I  have  re- 
marked that  several  queens  whom  I  know  have  this 
rather  trying  capacity  for  standing,  and,  as  nobody 
can  sit  down  while  they  stand,  their  guests  and  their 
ladies-  and  gentlemen-in-waiting  are  sometimes  a 
good  deal  fatigued.  Numbers  of  women  are  not 
aware  that  they  owe  to  Queen  Margherita  the  pretty 
fashion  of  wearing  a  string  of  pearls  in  the  daytime. 
But  she  did  not  limit  herself  to  the  single  string  of 
pearls  worn  by  women  of  fashion,  she  was  simply 
hung  with  ropes  of  pearls  morning,  noon  and  night; 
in  fact,  I  have  never  seen  her  without  them. 

Although  the  King  of  Italy  made  Rome  his  capi- 
tal, the  other  members  of  the  Royal  Family  have 
never  gone  to  live  there,  and  continue  to  make  their 
home  in  Turin.  Among  these  are  the  Duke  and 
Duchess  of  Genoa  and  the  Duke  and  Duchess  of 
Aosta,  and  the  exasperating  etiquette  peculiar  to 
Royal  personages  is  rigorously  maintained  in  their 
palaces.  Gentlemen-in-waiting  and  ladies-in-wait- 
ing are  always  in  attendance  on  them,  and  it  used 
to  surprise  me  that  people  could  be  found  to  devote 
themselves  to  such  an  insufferably  dull  occupation 

217 


COURT  LIFE  FROM  WITHIN 

as  that  of  serving  in  miniature  Courts,  until  I  remem- 
bered that  some  of  them  might  be  ghid  to  do  the 
work,  if  work  it  can  be  called,  for  the  sake  of  being 
maintained  and  of  receiving  the  salaries  attached  to 
their  offices.  English  princesses  have  the  daily  dis- 
traction of  opening  bazaars,  but  little  happens  to 
enliven  the  Courts  of  Turin.  When  I  have  stayed 
there,  the  chief  excitement  of  the  day  has  invariably 
been  a  drive  to  a  park  outside  the  city,  where  the 
Royal  personages  walked  for  a  little,  attended  by  the 
inevitable  ladies-  and  gentlemen-in-waiting,  and 
after  half  an  hour  of  that  mild  form  of  exercise, 
drove  back  to  their  homes.  These  proceedings  did 
not  appear  to  awaken  any  great  interest  in  the  citi- 
zens of  Turin,  for  in  Italy,  as  in  most  other  countries, 
the  public  has  ceased  to  concern  itself  about  the  lit- 
tle doings  of  princes  and  princesses. 

The  Dowager  Duchess  of  Aosta  sometimes  shows 
her  independence  by  freeing  herself  from  Royal 
bonds  when  she  is  abroad,  and  I  remember  her  once 
arriving  in  Paris  entirely  unattended.  She  was 
Princess  Lstitia  Bonaparte  before  her  marriage,  and 
enjoys  the  style  of  Imperial  Highness,  while,  rather 
oddly,  the  young  Duchess  of  Aosta  is  a  Princess  of 

218 


THE  COURTS  OF  ITALY 

the  House  of  Bourbon  and  sister  of  the  Due  d'Or- 
leans.  She  is  a  somewhat  masculine  type  of  woman, 
and  spends  a  great  deal  of  her  time  in  Abyssinia. 
She  leaves  her  husband  and  two  boys  and,  with  no 
companion  except  an  elderly  Englishwoman,  sets  out 
on  a  hunting  expedition.  She  is  lost  in  the  heart  of 
Africa  for  months,  and  then  suddenly  reappears  and 
settles  down  to  the  humdrum  life  of  her  palace. 
But  soon  she  hears  again  the  call  of  the  wild,  and 
is  away  once  more.  What  she  does  in  Abyssinia  no- 
body knows,  if  one  excepts  the  elderly  English- 
woman. The  country  seems  to  have  cast  a  spell  on 
her,  and  she  cannot  resist  its  fascinations.  The 
Duke  of  Genoa,  Queen  Margherita's  brother,  and 
his  wife,  who  is  a  Bavarian  Princess,  live  in  the 
same  palace  as  the  Dowager  Duchess  of  Aosta,  but 
their  households  are  independent  and,  in  point  of 
fact,  the  two  duchesses  rarely  see  each  other.  The 
duke  is  almost  a  recluse;  he  spends  several  hours 
in  his  private  chapel  every  day,  lost  in  prayer  and 
meditation. 

I  was  a  little  surprised  the  first  time  I  went  to 
Turin  to  find  that  the  Piedmontese  dialect  of  Ital- 
ian was  spoken  in  Royal  circles.     To  understand 

219 


COURT  LIFE  FROM  WITHIN 

what  was  said  sometimes  required  close  attention, 
even  when  one  knew  Italian  well,  and  I  have  found 
a  similar  difficulty  in  other  Italian  cities.  In  Bo- 
logna, for  instance,  where  I  have  lived  so  much,  the 
cultured  classes,  as  well  as  the  peasants,  talked  dia- 
lect, and  travelling  about  Italy  one  seemed  con- 
stantly under  the  necessity  of  learning  new  words 
and  phrases. 

There  are  so  many  beautiful  Italian  cities  in  which 
agreeable  society  may  be  enjoyed  that  had  one  to 
choose  one  in  which  to  live  permanently  it  would 
be  difficult  to  come  to  a  decision.  Venice  is  one  of 
the  most  adorable,  and  the  time  I  spent  with  the 
Duke  and  Duchess  of  Genoa  at  the  King's  palace 
there  was  a  dream  of  delight.  But  there  is  one  ob- 
jection, and  that  a  serious  one  to  a  prolonged  stay 
in  Venice,  and  that  is  the  difficulty  of  getting  proper 
exercise.  As  everybody  seemed  prepared  to  spoil 
me  when  I  was  there,  I  made  it  clear  that  it  was  es- 
sential for  me  to  do  something  more  vigorous  than 
gliding  down  silent  canals  in  a  gondola  or  strolling 
in  the  Piazza.  It  was  therefore  arranged  that  I 
should  play  tennis  at  the  Arsenal,  and  that  indul- 
gence gave  me  the  one  thing  that  seemed  lacking 

220 


THE  COURTS  OF  ITALY 

in  the  charming  life  of  the  city.  Italians  can  play- 
tennis  very  well  when  they  choose,  and  Monsignor 
Montagnini,  the  Papal  Legate  who  was  turned  out 
of  France  when  diplomatic  relations  between  the 
Republic  and  the  Vatican  were  ruptured,  was  a  case 
in  point.  He  played  an  excellent  game,  and  we 
often  had  a  set  together  in  Paris.  Little  did  I  guess 
what  his  means  were,  and  never  will  I  forget  his  false 
behaviour  when  his  papers  were  captured.  In  Ven- 
ice too,  I  found  some  good  players,  and  so  managed 
to  get  the  vigorous  exercise  I  needed.  Apart  from 
this,  I  lived  the  life  of  the  Venetians — walked  in  the 
Piazza  from  half-past  eleven  to  half-past  twelve, 
took  the  air  in  a  gondola  about  half-past  five,  went 
occasionally  to  the  opera  at  the  Fenice,  that  most 
exquisite  of  theatres,  and  ended  the  day  by  dancing 
in  the  enchanted  palaces  that  rise  from  the  sea.  It 
was  often  sunrise  when  I  stepped  into  a  Royal  barge 
with  gondoliers  in  scarlet  and,  to  the  rhythmic  music 
of  oars  that  cut  the  water  and  the  splash  of  the 
spray  that  fell  from  their  blades,  floated  through  the 
rosy  dawn  to  the  Royal  palace. 


221 


CHAPTER  XII 
ADVENTURES  IN  AMERICA 

It  was  during  these  years  of  travel  in  Europe  that  I 
was  offered  the  opportunity  of  going  to  America  to 
represent  the  Throne  of  Spain  at  the  World's  Fair 
that  was  to  be  held  in  Chicago  to  commemorate  the 
four  hundredth  anniversaiy  of  Columbus's  dis- 
cover}'. I  accepted  the  invitation  with  joy.  I  had 
no  longer  my  childish  idea  that  if  I  could  only  take 
a  boat  and  sail  to  America  I  should  be  really  "free"; 
but  I  had  still  in  my  mind  the  household  saying 
that  I  was  "only  fit  for  America,"  and  I  felt  sure 
that  I  should  like  the  great  democracy,  and  I  was 
eager  to  see  it.  It  was  planned,  also,  that  I  should 
visit  Cuba — in  the  usual  administrative  hope  that  a 
Royal  visitor  might  revive  the  loyalty  of  a  rebellious 
colony  exasperated  by  misgovernment.  The  mis- 
government  was  a  thing  for  which  the  Royal  Family 
was  as  little  to  blame  as  the  Cubans  themselves;  but 
I  was  willing  to  be  made  use  of,  in  one  of  the  few 
ways  that  royalty  can  be  of  use  in  a  constitutional 


ADVENTURES  IN  AMERICA 

monarchy,  and  I  prepared  to  see — and  be  seen  by — 
Cuba,  too. 

There  were  such  stories  in  Spain  of  the  dangers 
from  yellow  fever  in  the  colony  that  ladies-in-waiting 
were  as  reluctant  to  make  the  trip  as  the  sailors  of 
Columbus;  and  though  my  husband  took  a  large  suite 
of  gentlemen,  I  found  only  one  lady-in-waiting  to  go 
with  me,  and  one  maid,  a  faithful  old  servant  who 
had  been  in  the  family  for  thirty  years.  We  set  out, 
in  April,  1893,  on  board  the  Rehia  Maria  Cristina 
from  Santander,  after  the  inevitable  Te  Deum  in  the 
cathedral  of  Santander,  a  State  dinner  and  recep- 
tion, an  illumination  of  the  harbour,  and  a  choir  in 
a  tender  to  sing  us  off.  There  were  more  Te  Deums 
and  receptions  and  illuminations  at  the  Spanish  ports 
and  islands  where  we  called ;  and  at  one  port  we  were 
met  by  the  authorities  with  a  black-bordered  protest 
against  the  suppression  of  the  local  capitan  general. 
The  paper  was  signed  by  a  "defence  assembly." 
The  officials  warned  us  that  it  would  be  unwise  for  us 
to  land.  I  insisted  on  it.  They  went  away,  and  as 
soon  as  I  understood  that  they  had  gone  for  a  police 
order  I  went  ashore  without  any  escort  except  our 
suite,  and  walked  through  the  crowded  streets  to  the 

223 


COURT  LIFE  FROM  WITHIN 

cathedral.  This  proceeding  aroused  such  a  furore  of 
popuhir  enthusiasm  that  I  might  have  been  another 
Jeanne  d'Arc  entering  a  beleaguered  town  that  she 
had  relieved;  and  for  the  rest  of  my  trip  I  had  no 
hesitation  about  putting  aside  the  officials  and  trust- 
ing myself  to  the  people.  At  Las  Palmas  I  got  on 
so  well  that  in  the  cathedral,  when  tlie  bishop  was 
singing  the  Te  Deum,  the  crowd  forgot  they  were  in 
church  and  interrupted  him  with  shouts  of  "Vive  la 
Infanta  I"  As  a  matter  of  fact,  I  have  found  that 
the  danger  to  royalty  comes  not  from  informalities  of 
this  sort  so  much  as  from  the  parade  of  bodyguards 
and  escorts  that  exasperate  the  unhappy  people  by 
personifying  the  power  of  the  social  conditions  that 
oppress  them.  It  is  usually  on  the  most  impressive 
occasions  that  bombs  are  thrown. 

We  arrived  outside  the  wonderful  harbour  of 
Havana  early  in  May,  and  I  watched  for  the  first 
sight  of  Morro  Castle  with  curiosity.  I  had  heard 
from  my  mother  that  it  had  cost  her  grandfather, 
King  Charles  IV.,  such  an  incredible  sum  to  build 
that  he  had  longed  to  see  it,  as  he  said,  "if  only 
through  a  keyhole."  I  understood  that  I  was  the 
first  of  the  Royal  Family  to  look  at  it.     Certainly, 

224 


ADVENTURES  IN  AMERICA 

I  was  the  last.  And  the  fact  that  I  should  probably 
be  the  last  was  the  strongest  impression  that  I  got 
from  Cuba. 

My  first  impression,  of  course,  was  of  the  heat. 
Immediately  on  my  arrival  I  was  visited  by  a  phy- 
sician, who  came  to  warn  me  of  all  the  diseases  I 
might  catch,  and  to  tell  me  of  all  the  things  that  I 
must  do  and  must  not  do  to  avoid  them.  It  was 
terrifying  to  listen  to  him.  I  had  insisted  on  having 
cold  drinks,  and  he  was  sure  that  cold  drinks  would 
be  fatal.  I  had  been  installed  in  the  palace  of  the 
capitan  general^  and  I  was  going  about  on  the  mar- 
ble floors  in  my  stockinged  feet  to  be  cooler.  This 
also  I  was  told  was  dangerous.  "Well,"  I  said  at 
last,  "if  I  don't  cool  myself  down,  I  shall  surely  die 
of  the  heat,  anyway,  so  what  matter*?"  And  I  de- 
cided to  do  what  I  wanted  and  let  my  natural  vi- 
tality take  care  of  the  consequences.  Because  of  this 
policy  I  made  what  appears  to  have  been  a  startling 
impression  of  energy  on  the  Cubans.  There  is  noth- 
ing more  popular  than  energy  in  a  royal  person — 
perhaps  because  it  is  so  unexpected.  I  had,  for  once, 
the  good  luck  to  please  by  doing  what  I  pleased. 

The  heat  was  so  great  on  my  first  night  in  the 
225 


COURT  LIFE  FROM  WITHIN 

palace  that  I  could  not  sleep,  and  being  by  no  means 
hit,  and  ni}-  bed  being  without  springs — just  the 
stretched  canvas  of  a  "petate"  fastened  on  a  bed 
frame — I  ached  with  the  hard  discomforts  of  it.  At 
two  in  the  morning  I  demanded  a  mattress.  My 
maid  sent  for  one.  After  a  half-hour  of  waiting  a 
young  aide-de-camp  appeared,  in  full  uniform,  and 
when  I  asked  why  lie  had  come,  he  replied:  "But  it 
is  I  who  have  made  your  bed;  if  it  is  wrong,  I  must 
fix  it."  I  roared.  He  explained  that  in  order  to 
have  the  bed  prepared  with  all  possible  care  for  me, 
it  had  been  decided  that  an  officer  should  make  it. 
I  told  him  to  send  me  a  mattress,  and  go  back  to  his 
sleep.  My  maid,  a  simple  old  soul,  was  in  a  state 
of  distraction.  "My  poor  Infanta  I  My  poor  In- 
fanta I"  she  kept  wailing.  "What  will  become  of 
her,  with  no  one  but  these  stupid  men  to  look  after 
her!" 

When  the  mattress  arrived  we  arranged  it  our- 
selves, and  I  settled  down  again;  but  it  made  the 
bed  so  much  hotter  that  I  could  not  sleep  any  better 
than  before;  and  I  did  not  dare  to  make  any  more 
demands  for  fear  of  disturbing  the  officer  again.  At 
seven  in  the  morning  a  deafening  uproar  of  military 

226 


ADVENTURES  IN  AMERICA 

music  suddenly  broke  out  in  the  salo7i  that  adjoined 
my  bedroom,  and  my  maid  went  wild  with  panic, 
crossing  and  blessing  herself  and  saying  frantic 
prayers.  I  hurried  into  a  dressing-gown  and  opened 
my  door  on  a  German  regimental  band  that  had  re- 
ceived a  cable  from  the  Kaiser  to  serenade  me  with 
the  traditional  "Guten  Morgen,"  and  had  marched 
at  once  on  the  palace  as  if  they  were  going  to  take  a 
fortress,  and  were  now  blowing  their  trumpets  and 
beating  their  drums  with  an  obedient  diligence  that 
seemed  likely  to  crack  the  walls.  None  of  the  pal- 
ace servants  had  understood  what  this  was  for;  and 
these  servants,  by  a  horrible  custom  not  uncommon 
in  parts  of  Spain,  were  convicts  who  wore  leg-chains 
and  worked  in  the  palace  as  in  a  prison,  going  about 
in  livery  and  bare  feet,  and  dragging  their  chains  on 
the  marble  floors.  They  were  as  bewildered  as  my 
maid,  and  they  were  scuttling  around  as  helplessly. 
As  soon  as  I  saw  the  uniforms  that  the  musicians 
wore  I  guessed  what  had  happened;  and,  the  noise 
drowning  my  voice,  I  tried,  by  smiling  and  bowing, 
to  reassure  the  general  panic.  When  the  music 
stopped  I  got  things  straightened  out,  but  while  it 
lasted  we  were  a  scene  from  a  madhouse  or  a  thea- 

227 


COURT  LIFE  FROM  WITHIN 

trical  burlesque.  I  went  back  to  my  mattress  feeling 
that  my  first  night  in  Havana  had  not  been  too  tame. 

My  day  had  been  more  successful,  because  of  a 
curious  accident  that  had  made  my  arrival  almost  tri- 
umphant. My  maid,  as  we  neared  the  shore,  had 
packed  all  my  gowns  but  the  one  I  had  decided  to 
wear — a  striped  gown  of  blue  and  white,  around  the 
collar  of  which  the  dressmaker  had  put  a  red  edging. 
When  I  came  on  deck  in  it,  some  one  protested  at 
once:  "But,  Your  Royal  Highness,  that  is  the  uni- 
form of  the  insurgents!"  It  seemed  impossible,  but 
it  was  so:  they  wore  just  such  a  blue-and-white  stripe 
with  red  facings.  There  was  consternation.  My 
trunks  had  been  taken  from  my  state-room.  We 
were  nearing  shore.  No  one  seemed  to  know  what 
to  do.  And  while  we  delayed,  talking  and  arguing, 
the  boat  proceeded.  It  was  soon  too  late  to  do 
anything,  and  I  said :  "Never  mind ;  it  will  not  mat- 
ter.    No  one  will  notice  it." 

But  they  did.  They  not  only  noticed  it,  but  they 
supposed  that  I  had  worn  it  purposely  with  I  do  not 
know  what  idea  of  pleasing  the  people  or  showing 
that  the  Throne  of  Spain  was  above  the  quarrels  of 
the  factions  in  the  island.     It  aroused  incredible  en- 

228 


ADVENTURES  IN  AMERICA 

thusiasm.  And  after  that  beginning  I  was  received 
everywhere  with  the  honours  of  a  national  hero. 
Whenever  I  drove  out  my  carriage  was  showered  with 
pamphlets  of  loyal  congratulations  and  poems  and 
panegyrics.  At  a  bullfight  given  in  my  honour,  not 
having  thought  to  bring  a  present  for  the  torero  when 
he  made  his  speech  to  me  from  the  arena,  I  threw  him 
one  of  my  finger-rings ;  he  was  offered  huge  sums  for 
it,  but  refused  to  sell  it,  as  if  it  had  been  Aladdin's. 
Everything  I  did  was  accepted  as  admirable — 
whether  I  rode  horseback  at  the  military  review  when 
I  wanted  the  exercise,  or  received  in  my  arms  a  little 
girl  who  slid  down  a  sort  of  fire-escape  at  an  exhi- 
bition of  the  volunteer  fire  brigade,  when  I  was  afraid 
that  she  might  fall  and  break  her  neck  in  my  honour 
if  some  one  did  not  catch  her. 

It  was  evident  that  I  was  making  "a  personal  suc- 
cess." But  as  soon  as  I  talked  to  men  who  knew 
the  situation  in  Cuba,  I  was  convinced  that  the  suc- 
cess was  only  personal.  For  too  long  had  Spain  been 
sending  out  officials  to  Cuba  who  had  no  ambition  but 
to  fill  their  pockets  at  the  expense  of  the  Cuban  peo- 
ple; and  the  Cubans  had  made  up  their  minds  that 
they  would  endure  it  no  longer.     In  administrative 

229 


COURT  LIFE  FROM  WITHIN 

circles,  ever)^  one  who  was  candid  confessed  that  "it 
was  too  late."  In  Spain,  the  people,  though  the  vic- 
tims of  the  same  sort  of  corruption,  had  the  conso- 
lation of  knowing  that  the  government  was  their 
own;  here  the  corruption  was  imposed  on  them  by  a 
government  in  which  they  were  not  represented.  In 
Spain  the  army  could  be  used  to  suppress  armed  re- 
bellion; but  here,  the  army  itself  was  so  enfeebled  by 
corruption,  so  badly  led,  so  wasted  by  yellow  fever, 
that  it  was  nearly  useless.  At  a  dinner  to  the  influ- 
ential men  of  the  colony  I  had  to  change  the  con- 
versation several  times  in  order  to  avoid  hearing 
Spain  abused.  Leaders  of  both  political  parties, 
whether  they  were  for  or  against  Spain,  were  of  the 
one  mind:  "It  was  too  late."  Cuba  was  deter- 
mined to  be  free  of  a  maladministration  which  no  sen- 
sible person  could  blame  her  for  refusing  to  endure. 
All  the  sensible  people  were  aware,  at  last,  that  the 
conditions  ought  to  have  been  corrected,  and  one 
could  only  say  to  one's  self:  "It's  too  bad  you 
didn't  think  of  it  sooner."  As  we  sailed  away  from 
the  harbour  of  Havana  I  was  oppressed  with  the 
conviction  tliat  the  Crown  of  Spain,  in  my  person, 

230 


ADVENTURES  IN  AMERICA 

was  saluting  for  the  last  time  the  Spanish  flag  flying 
over  that  fortress.     Cuba  was  gone. 

Steaming  northward,  the  weather  turned  delight- 
fully cold,  and  I  revelled  in  it,  reviving  myself  after 
the  strenuously  exhausting  days  of  our  crowded  week 
in  Havana.  When  we  picked  up  our  pilot  off  Sandy 
Hook  I  was  on  the  upper  deck,  promenading  happily 
in  the  chill  wind  in  light  clothes,  and  the  pilot  re- 
marked to  one  of  the  boat's  officers  that  it  "was 
dangerous  for  that  young  girl"  to  be  exposed  in 
such  a  way  to  such  weather.  He  was  told  that  I 
was  "the  Spanish  Infanta,"  and  he  laughed  uproar- 
iously at  the  idea;  and  the  more  seriously  the  officer 
assured  him  of  it  the  more  he  enjoyed  the  joke.  I 
saw  him  looking  at  me  and  laughing,  so  I  inquired 
what  was  the  matter;  and  when  I  found  out  I  was 
slightly  puzzled. 

His  amusement  proved  to  be  typical  of  my  whole 
reception  in  the  United  States.  As  one  of  the  news- 
papers put  it,  they  had  expected  a  "big,  dark  Spanish 
princess  with  a  black  moustache,"  and  it  was  with 
a  tickled  surprise  that  they  found  me  "like  any  of  the 
girls  you  see  walking  down  Fifth  Avenue."     Their 

231 


COURT  LIFE  FROM  WITHIN 

pleased  curiosity  was  reflected  in  the  accounts  that 
the  reporters  gave  of  me.  No  conceivable  personal 
detail  escaped  them.  One  reporter  even  discovered 
that  I  had  a  gold  crown  on  one  of  my  back  teeth, 
and  I  was  mystified  to  know  how  he  could  have  seen 
it.  Surely  my  smile  was  not  so  broad  as  all  that  I 
I  tried  myself  before  a  mirror.  No  I  By  no  possible 
grimace  could  I  expose  that  tooth.  I  remained  mys- 
tified.    I  do  still. 

The  amusement,  however,  was  not  altogether  on 
their  side.  The  newspapers  had  not  prepared  me  for 
this  familiar  but  kindly  tone  of  the  American  Press; 
and  the  people  of  European  countries  had  not  the 
simple  benevolence  of  the  curiosity  that  brought  the 
smiling  crowds  to  greet  me  in  the  United  States. 
The  American  young  girl  is  the  spoiled  darling  of 
the  nation,  and  they  were  all  as  willing  to  spoil  me — 
and  I  was  willing  to  be  spoiled — by  their  almost  af- 
fectionate and  chivalrous  desire  to  give  me  "a  good 
time." 

I  cannot  pretend  that  I  saw  anything  at  all  of  the 
problems  of  government  in  the  country — nothing  of 
the  {)overty,  of  the  industrial  exploitation,  of  the  in- 
equalities of  opportunity   and   die  control   by   the 

232 


ADVENTURES  IN  AMERICA 

moneyed  classes,  of  which  we  have  since  come  to  hear 
so  much  in  all  the  kingdoms  and  republics  and  de- 
mocracies of  this  changing  world.  I  was  merely  a 
caller  in  the  parlour.  I  knew  nothing  of  the  family 
life  in  the  house,  much  less  of  the  difficulties  below- 
stairs. 

We  did  not  land  at  New  York,  but  at  Jersey  City, 
where  a  special  train  was  waiting  to  carry  us  to 
Washington.  It  would  have  taken  us  in  Spain 
twenty-four  hours  to  go  the  distance ;  we  covered  it  in 
five  hours,  and  I  did  not  feel  shaken.  In  Spain,  if 
luncheon  had  been  served  us  on  the  train  it  would 
have  been  "to  kill  time" ;  here  it  was  served  us  "to 
save  time."  One  was  struck  at  once  by  the  busy- 
ness of  the  life  and  its  efficiency.  We  had  been 
caught  up  by  an  organisation  that  transported  us, 
fed  us,  housed  us,  delivered  us  into  the  hands  of  a 
host  or  at  the  doors  of  an  entertainment,  returned 
us  to  our  hotel,  took  us  on  excursions,  provided  us 
with  drives,  protected  us  from  intrusion,  conducted 
us  through  crowds,  intelligently,  suavely,  without  any 
hitch,  comfortably,  almost  invisibly,  with  a  fore- 
sight that  seemed  to  provide  for  every  contingency 
that  could  happen,  and  to  be  prepared  for  any  change 

233 


COURT  LIFE  FROM  WITHIN 

of  plan  that  \vc  could  wish.  And  the  spectacle  of 
the  life,  through  which  we  hurried,  had  the  same  air 
of  having  conquered  the  material  agents  of  existence 
to  the  same  end;  namely,  that  every  one  should  get 
as  much  as  possible  done  in  a  day  with  as  little  fric- 
tion as  possible  in  the  mechanical  means  of  doing  it. 
From  some  of  the  Americans  whom  I  have  seen 
abroad  I  had  not  got  a  very  happy  impression,  and 
now  I  understood  why.  They  had  been  out  of 
their  element;  they  had  left  at  home  tlicir  reason  for 
being.  The  women,  for  example,  were  less  con- 
spicuously dressed  than  some  I  had  seen  in  Paris, 
and  less  nervously  self-assertive;  and  the  men  were 
more  easy  and  more  natural.  They  were  not  on  the 
defensive  among  foreigners  whom  they  felt  to  be 
critical,  or  whom  they  desired  to  impress.  They 
were  not  blatant  nor  apologetic.  They  were  happy, 
intelligent,  hospitable,  and  altogether  engaging,  I 
found  no  one  with  whom  conversation  was  not  in- 
stantly possible;  and  the  volubility  of  my  conversa- 
tions was  a  matter  of  amused  comment  with  our 
suite.  The  truth  was  that  I  was  not  only  sympa- 
thetically interested  in  all  I  saw  and  eager  to  talk 
about  it,  I  was  also  at  once  aware  of  the  friendli- 

234 


ADVENTURES  IN  AMERICA 

ness  of  the  eyes  that  watched  and  listened;  and  I 
talked,  and  my  vis-a-vis  talked,  without  any  awk- 
wardness of  restraint. 

There  were  no  royal  "monkey  tricks"  expected 
of  me.  I  was  unable  to  dance — though  I  often 
longed  to — because  I  was  on  an  official  visit,  and 
questions  of  precedence  would  have  made  it  neces- 
sary for  me  to  choose  the  most  important  personage 
in  the  room  as  my  partner,  or  take  the  risk  of  offend- 
ing him.  And  the  most  important  person  at  a  dance 
is  not  always  the  best  dancer.  But  I  was  not  set 
apart  on  a  dais  as  I  would  have  been  at  home — "al- 
ways on  a  stand,  like  a  harp,"  as  I  used  to  complain 
— and  I  enjoyed  myself.  I  felt  that  I  was  really 
meeting  the  people  whom  I  met.  I  was  not  merely 
royalty ;  I  was  a  sort  of  national  guest,  whom  every 
one  tried  to  interest  and  entertain. 

One  accepted  as  an  inevitable  part  of  one's  public 
character  the  army  of  reporters  and  photographers 
who  surrounded  us  at  every  official  appearance. 
They  were  not  intrusive;  and  having  learned  that 
I  could  not  give  interviews  they  did  not  try  to  get 
any.  The  goodwill  of  the  crowds,  who  were  as 
omnipresent  as  the  newspaper  men,  was  always  de- 

235 


COURT  LIFE  FROM  WITHIN 

lightful.  They  gathered,  of  course,  merely  out  of 
curiosity,  but  their  stares  were  not,  as  in  other  coun- 
tries, either  awed  or  inimical,  or  just  curious.  They 
greeted  you,  as  they  might  greet  one  of  their  own 
representatives,  with  amiable  smiles  and  cheers, 
waving  their  handkerchiefs.  In  the  thronged  streets 
of  the  exposition  they  could  not  be  held  back  by 
our  police  escort,  who  struggled  with  them  good- 
naturedly  as  they,  good-naturedly,  pressed  in  upon 
us;  and  one  could  not  help  but  accept  their  pressure 
with  a  smile.  It  was  all  quite  human  and  jolly  and 
inoffensive — a  democratic  crowd,  democratically  un- 
restrained in  its  interest  in  everything  and  every- 
body. When  I  was  complimented  on  the  popular 
impression  which  I  seemed  to  make  I  could  reply, 
quite  truthfully,  that  if  the  Americans  liked  me  it 
must  be  because  they  could  see  how  I  liked  them. 
I  liked  them  immensely. 

They  seemed  all  prosperous  and  all  happy.  We 
had  no  begging  letters  and  petitions  for  alms  thrown 
into  our  carriage,  such  as  would  have  overwhelmed 
us  at  home.  Wq  did  not  meet  aii}'  of  those  affected 
excesses  of  deference  to  royalty  which  would  have 
been  so  out  of  place  in  a  country  where  there  is  no 

236 


ADVENTURES  IN  AMERICA 

Crown.  If  people  crowded  to  see  us,  out  of  curi- 
osity, I  could  not  complain;  I  was  just  as  curious  to 
see  them.  They  were  not  rude — and  I  hope  I  was 
not. 

Any  one  who  makes  a  royal  visit  to  any  country 
must  see  it  superficially;  and  if  I  wrote  here  that 
President  Cleveland  and  his  beautiful  wife  were 
charming  hosts,  that  the  country  around  Washington 
reminded  me  of  England,  that  the  lake  front  in  Chi- 
cago (which  was  about  all  of  Chicago  that  I  really 
saw)  was  handsome,  that  New  York  was  New  York, 
and  the  Hudson  River  the  Hudson  River — I  should 
not  relieve  my  mind  of  anything  that  even  Lewis 
Carroll's  conversational  walrus  would  have  cared  to 
hear.  And  I  should  not  interest  even  myself  by 
writing  it.  If  I  had  come  to  America  as  a  person 
distinguished  by  intellect  instead  of  merely  by  birth, 
I  might  have  been  very  proud  of  the  crowds  that 
came  to  see  me;  and  my  contact  with  American  life 
might  have  been  an  illuminating  experience  worth 
detailing.  As  it  was,  my  apparent  popularity  could 
mean  nothing  to  me  personally ;  and  my  experiences, 
though  pleasant,  can  mean  nothing  to  any  one  else. 
Nothing  had  happened  to  change  my  belief  that  my 

237 


COURT  LIFE  FROM  WITHIN 

public  life  as  a  royal  personage  was  a  busy  futility. 
And  when  our  steamship  drew  away  from  the  shores 
of  New  York,  and  all  the  farewells  had  been  said, 
and  the  last  cheers  of  the  last  crowd  had  sounded,  I 
was  at  once  sad  to  watch  a  land  recede  that  I  felt  I 
should  never  see  again,  and  glad  to  be  alone  with  my 
own  thoughts  and  free  to  lay  off  my  public  char- 
acter. 

I  suppose  the  truth  is  that  I  do  not  easily  reflect 
the  "collectif"  sentiment.  I  am  not  able  sincerely 
to  laugh  or  cry  because  others  are  laughing  or  cry- 
ing. And  I  return  gladly  to  solitude,  because  it  is 
only  in  solitude  that  I  seem  to  be  myself. 

As  I  have  said  before,  this  desire  for  solitude  had 
been  growing  in  me  for  years.  And  for  years  I  was 
held  in  royal  circles  by  my  desire  to  establish  a 
future  for  my  sons.  But  my  eldest  son  inherited  the 
fortune  of  the  Due  de  Montpensier,  and  my  youngest 
the  fortune  of  the  Duchess;  and  they  became  inde- 
pendent of  me.  The  death  of  the  Due  deprived  me 
of  one  of  the  few  dear  friends  I  had  in  the  world,  and 
broke  the  last  of  the  few  sympathies  that  had  made 
my  life  with  my  husband  possible.  We  had  dis- 
covered no  affection  for  each  other.     He  had  freed 

238 


ADVENTURES  IN  AMERICA 

himself,  in  all  but  name,  from  the  marriage  contract. 
We  had  never  quarrelled;  I  should  say  we  were  never 
sufficiently  interested  in  each  other  to  quarrel.  I 
decided  that  we  should  separate.  And  in  spite  of 
the  opposition  of  Royalty,  who  would  have  had  me 
endure  anything  rather  than  bring  a  scandal  near  the 
Crown,  I  forced  the  separation  with  the  aid  of  my 
husband's  relatives,  who  sympathised  with  me.  I 
returned  to  my  mother's  home  in  Paris,  the  Palais 
de  Castile,  and  it  was  one  of  the  happiest  mornings 
of  my  life  when  I  awakened  there,  alone,  and  free. 
I  could  get  no  divorce,  because  divorce  is  not  pos- 
sible to  any  one  in  Spain — least  of  all  to  an  Infanta 
— but  I  was  at  liberty  to  live  my  life  in  my  own 
way,  and  that  satisfied  me. 

When  my  mother  died,  I  was  able  to  get  wholly 
clear  of  the  formalities  of  Court  life,  and  I  left  the 
Palais  to  rent  an  apartment  for  myself  where  I  could 
live  like  a  private  person,  with  my  maids,  without 
even  a  lady-in-waiting.  I  bought  a  few  acres  of 
land  on  the  seashore  of  my  beloved  Normandy,  and 
built  myself  a  summer  cottage  cooled  by  the  happy 
breezes  that  I  had  known  as  a  child.  And  here  I  can 
say,  and  do,  and  think,  and  write  what  I  please,  un- 

239 


COURT  LIFE  FROM  WITHIN 

troubled  by  the  prohibitions  of  crowned  heads,  who 
can  enforce  no  command  on  me  and  impose  no  pun- 
ishment— except  to  deny  me  an  entrance  to  Courts 
from  which  I  have  been  only  too  glad  to  escape. 

When  my  first  little  book  was  about  to  be  pub- 
lished, the  King  of  Spain  wired  me  that  I  could  not 
publish  it  without  his  consent.  I  repudiated  that 
control  of  my  liberty,  and  they  threatened  to  de- 
prive me  of  my  title  and  the  small  income  that  comes 
with  it.  I  was  puzzled  to  know  what  they  would 
decide  to  call  me,  if  not  "the  Infanta  Eulalia";  and 
I  was  interested  to  see  if  the  King  would  set  a  prece- 
dent for  depriving  the  "inviolable"  Royal  Family  of 
its  titles  and  its  property  by  legislative  enactment. 
He  decided,  wisely,  to  let  the  matter  drop,  and  I 
heard  no  more  of  it. 

It  is  my  final  realisation  of  freedom  that  I  cele- 
brate now  in  these  pages.  I  have  escaped,  mind  and 
body,  from  my  gilded  cage.  It  has  taken  a  lifetime, 
but  it  was  worth  it.  I  have  no  respect  for  anything 
in  the  world  except  intelligence.  I  live  in  France 
because  it  is  the  most  intelligent  of  all  the  countries 
I  have  known.  I  have  seen  the  world  waking  to  the 
fact  that  the  rule  of  money  is  no  better  than  the  rule 

240 


ADVENTURES  IN  AMERICA 

of  rank,  except  when  it  is  more  intelligent;  and  I 
can  foresee  the  day  when  the  inequalities  of  prop- 
erty will  have  no  more  authority  than  the  inequal- 
ities of  rank  to  oppress  mankind.  I  read  and  write 
to  keep  my  own  intelligence  in  health  by  exercising 
it.  And  I  am  afraid  of  no  critic  except  the  one  who 
may  find  my  intelligence  feeble,  with  a  prison  pallor, 
in  spite  of  its  joy  in  its  escape. 


241 


CHAPTER  XIII 

AFTER  THE  WAR 

What  interests — fascinates — the  student  of  con- 
temporary humanity  rather  than  of  contemporary 
politics  is  to  what  extent  the  war  will  cither  advance 
or  set  us  back  as  a  civilisation;  shall  we  be  better 
for  it,  will  life  be  better  for  if? 

I  have  always  had  a  horror  of  war.  I  hoped  and 
thought  up  to  the  last  moment  that  it  would  be 
averted.  It  seemed  impossible  that  France  and  Ger- 
many could  come  to  blows;  the  cost  looked  to  be  too 
big.  Yet  I  see  the  Kaiser  swept  away  by  the  war 
party  behind  him,  urged  by  that  mysticism,  which 
always  characterised  him,  to  believe  that  war  was  a 
divine  duty.  This  is  the  only  reason  I  can  find  for 
his  declaration.  He  loved  to  preach  and  pray  and 
live  and  talk  among  the  stars.  The  impulse  of  re- 
ligious fervour  ran  riot  in  him,  and  he  persuaded 
himself  that  to  plunge  the  world  into  the  most  hor- 
rible war  of  all  time  was  his  divine  mission. 

The  horror  of  war  which  we  feel  was  naturally 
242 


AFTER  THE  WAR 

enough  not  shared  by  the  Kaiser  and  the  war  party 
in  Berlin.  They  had  grown  used  to  the  idea,  for 
years  it  had  been  among  their  ambitions,  and  many 
of  them  had  spent  all  their  lives  training  for  it.  In 
fact,  that  is  the  biggest  and  most  tragic  mistake  of 
modern  history — Germany's  conception  that  to  con- 
quer the  rest  of  Europe  was  her  divinely  appointed 
mission;  you  can  see  it  in  every  bellicose  utterance 
of  the  Kaiser!  This  was  never  a  mere  pose.  He 
was  in  his  private  life  exactly  the  same  man  as  in  his 
public  utterances. 

What  is  to  be  the  result  of  this  war?  The  set- 
backs are  obvious.  It  will  take  Great  Britain,  with 
all  the  wealth  and  resources  of  her  Empire,  a  dozen 
years  to  recover  from  the  exhaustion  of  it.  France, 
with  large  stretches  of  her  country  desolated,  and 
crippled  financially,  will  perhaps  take  longer.  Rus- 
sia will  feel  it  less  in  many  ways,  and  certainly  will 
reap  one  big  benefit  in  that  the  war  will,  I  do  not 
doubt,  help  to  cement  her  scattered  and  immense 
population  and  bring  in  a  new  era  of  unity. 

It  may  well  be,  indeed,  that  the  end  of  the  war 
will  see  a  Russia  reborn,  rid  of  her  antiquated  sys- 
tems of  local  government,   released  from  methods 

.  243 


COl  RT  LIFE  FROM  WITHIN 

which  were  mediaeval — a  countr}'  set  upon  a  definite 
road  to  freedom. 

I  do  not  mean  that  a  Russian  republic  is  a  likely 
result.  I  think  the  war  will  strengthen  the  mon- 
archy; a  successful  war  always  does. 

Why,  even  in  France  to-day  there  is  a  widespread 
feeling  that  a  return  to  monarchy  would  be  welcome. 
Personally,  however,  I  do  not  believe  the  monarchical 
party  will  gain  much  headway;  the  whole  tendency 
of  the  world  is  against  it. 

The  spirit  of  the  times  is  democratic.  When  a 
people  realises  that  kings  and  queens  are  in  no  way 
superior  mortals  it  gradually  brings  about  a  republic. 
This  is  the  only  natural  and  logical  conclusion  of 
things.  France  has  learned  this  lesson  well  enough, 
she  will  never  go  back  from  her  present  methods  of 
government — methods  which  have  developed  the 
natural  genius  and  intelligence  of  her  people  and 
brought  such  prosperity  that  she  has  become  one  of 
the  wealthiest  countries  in  the  world.  The  aristoc- 
racy of  France  has  not  sufficient  power  to  overthrow 
the  people,  especially  now  when  the  people  have 
been  fighting  with  true  {patriotism,  not  for  the  ideal 


AFTER  THE  WAR 

of  a  kingship,  but  for  the  ideal  of  a  country — con- 
fraternity. 

This  spirit  of  democracy,  I  think,  will  extend  all 
over  Europe.  Republics  will  arise,  not  by  force  of 
arms,  mutinies  or  revolutions,  but  by  natural  evo- 
lution. To  kill  a  king  does  not  make  a  republic; 
that  comes  from  the  natural  growth  of  ideas  and 
ideals,  from  the  development  of  the  democratic  spirit, 
the  spirit  of  freedom,  which  follows  in  the  wake  of 
liberal  education. 

One  effect  of  the  war,  then,  may  be  to  substantiate 
monarchy  for  the  time  being,  save  in  France,  where 
I  think  it  will  create  a  bigger  confidence  in  the  Re- 
public. In  other  words,  if  the  Allies  emerge  with 
considerable  success,  conditions  of  government  as 
they  are  will  be  strengthened,  particularly  in  Russia. 

A  great  deal  has  been  written  in  the  past  about 
the  tottering  power  of  the  monarchy  in  Russia.  All 
of  this  has  been  mostly  untrue,  and  certainly  mislead- 
ing. I  can  recall  statements  in  print  of  the  fear  of 
the  Tsar  to  appear  before  his  people.  This  is  not 
the  truth.  When  I  was  in  Petrograd  he  often  came 
to  visit  me  practically  unattended,  and  whenever  he 

245 


COURT  LIFE  FROM  WITHIN 

has  been  counselled  to  take  precaution  he  has  adopted 
such  measures  only  because  he  has  thought  it  best  for 
his  country.  He  loves  Russia;  how  much  has  been 
splendidly  evident  since  the  war  broke  out,  and  when 
all  is  over  one  effect  will  surely  be  that  he  will  be 
all  the  more  beloved  by  Russia.  I  see,  too,  as  a 
result  of  his  generous  attitude  the  possibility  of  a 
resurrected  Poland,  whose  populace  will  freely  give 
suzerainty  to  Nicholas  II.  because  they  recognise 
amid  all  the  riot  and  disaster  of  to-day  that  he  is 
their  friend. 

Exaggerated  statements  have  also  been  made  that 
the  Tsaritza  fears  assassination.  The  writers  have 
based  their  reports  no  doubt  on  the  fact  that  the 
Tsar's  grandfather  met  his  death  in  this  wa}-,  and 
they  have  no  doubt  assumed  the  fears  of  the  present 
monarchs  as  a  matter  of  course.  The  Empress  is 
said  visibly  to  tremble  in  public,  but  this  is  occa- 
sioned simply  because  she  is  unhappily  a  sufferer 
from  timidity! 

But  what  about  Germany*?  Who  shall  dare  to 
prophesy? 

But  more  interesting  than  these  things  is  the  ques- 
tion of  armament — or  rather  disarmament.     Is  the 

246 


AFTER  THE  WAR 

latter  possible?  Arbitration  in  council  instead  of 
the  sword  and  the  gun — shall  we,  any  of  us,  live  to 
see  that  dream  come  true?  Democracy,  and  a  world- 
wide development  of  a  Hague  Conference  of  the 
Powers — these  are  the  hopes  of  those  who  think.  Is 
it  too  near  the  Utopia  of  the  Romanticists'?  Is  it 
the  impossible  Millennium'? 

I  do  most  honestly  believe  this  will  be  the  last 
big  war;  it  will  be  a  lesson  to  the  wide  world  of 
the  cost  of  fighting,  the  cost  in  lives,  in  comforts,  in 
money.  The  English  will  surely  feel  this;  they  are 
fond  of  luxury.  When  I  visited  England  I  was  im- 
pressed by  the  almost  reckless  extravagance  of  living; 
money  did  not  count  so  long  as  entertainment  was 
obtained ;  women  seemed  to  have  a  careless  disregard 
of  all  things  save  pleasure.  I  have  wondered  and 
marvelled  at  the  way  they  have  acted  since  war 
broke  out;  now  no  sacrifice  is  too  great  for  them  to 
make.  Truly  the  English  are  remarkable;  they  are 
on  the  surface  lovers  of  ease  and  lazy  luxury,  so  as  to 
seem  almost  degenerate.  Yet,  beneath  it  all,  there 
is  stamina,  grit,  the  power  to  bear  hardship,  the  spirit 
of  the  real  adventurer.  The  war  will  do  English  so- 
cial life  good — for  a  time;  but  though  for  a  little 

247 


COURT  LIFE  FROM  WITHIN 

while  the  English  will  eschew  gaiety  perhaps — I 
mean  the  recklessly  extravagant  gaieties  which  were 
tlieir  wont — will  their  phlegmatic  nature  presently 
allow  this  disturbance  to  be  forgotten  and  the  old 
conditions  to  recur? 

Sincerely  I  hope  not.  To  end  some  of  the  sense- 
less dissipations  would  be  one  of  the  best  results  of 
the  war;  there  is  no  room  in  life  for  stupid  extrav- 
agances, for  heedless  rushing  after  novel  excite- 
ment. For  English  Society  I  hope  the  lesson  will 
go  too  deep  to  be  forgotten  lightly.  And  I  am  in- 
terested too  in  the  movement  which  is  just  now  on 
foot  in  England  to  prohibit,  or  at  least  to  curtail  so 
extensive  a  sale  of  alcohol.  An  abstemious  Europe 
would  have  made  the  war  almost  worth  while.  And 
why  should  it  be  impossible?  France  has  closed 
down  the  sale  of  absinthe,  Russia  sells  and  consumes 
no  more  vodka.     In  England  the  evil  is  whisky. 

But  the  question  of  disarmament:  there  is  so  much 
to  hinder  it.  Each  country  has  a  different  condition 
of  things  to  consider;  England,  for  instance,  has 
never  kept  her  army  for  her  own  insular  needs;  her 
army  has  been  maintained  to  protect  and  uphold  the 
ends  of  her  Empire — and  those  needs  will   remain; 

248 


AFTER  THE  WAR 

how  can  she  disarm  altogether  when  India  has  to  be 
considered,  and  while  she  has  interests  to  defend,  not 
against  the  great  Powers,  but  against  the  native  in- 
surgent in  so  many  parts  of  the  world,  it  is  vital  to 
her — and  the  present  crisis  emphasises  it  beyond  mis- 
take— that  the  seas  should  be  kept  open,  and  were 
there  no  force  behind  that  need  she  as  well  as  her 
food  supply  would  be  at  the  mercy  of  any  pirate. 
Similarly  France  has  colonies  which  call  for  a  guard 
by  land  and  sea. 

But  the  day  of  the  big  military  power  will  surely 
pass  with  the  defeat  of  Prussian  militarism,  and  the 
nations  should  see  to  it  that  never  again  shall  one 
country  deliberately  arm  herself  so  as  to  be  a  menace 
to  the  world's  peace.  Is  it  not  possible  that  the 
great  nations  should  have  an  amalgamated  navy  and 
army  powerful  enough  to  command  peace  from  in- 
surgents— to  be  a  sort  of  world-wide  police*?  Surely 
at  some  conference  of  the  Powers  a  decision  should 
be  arrived  at  by  which  the  boundaries  and  influence 
of  nations  could  be  fixed  for  all  time,  with  due  re- 
gard to  the  scope  required  for  the  natural  develop- 
ment of  the  ambitions  of  each. 

It  is  certain  that  there  is  enough  territory  in  the 
249 


COURT  TJFE  FROM  WITHIN 

world  for  the  peoples  of  the  earth;  it  is  equally  cer- 
tain that  tlie  laws  of  supply  and  demand  would  bal- 
ance and  leave  a  reasonable  living  for  all  the  people 
of  the  world  if  only  economic  conditions  could  be 
properly  adjusted.  I  fancy  that  here  lie  the  big 
problems  of  the  future — not  the  conquering  of  one 
another  by  the  force  of  sword  and  gun,  but  the  equal- 
isation of  the  possibilities  of  possession.  There  are 
too  many  men  with  big  fortunes  and  too  many  homes 
with  not  sufficient  income;  on  the  face  of  it  there 
should  be  a  way  to  balance  these  discrepancies,  and 
there  the  big  thinkers  and  the  students  of  political 
economy  will  step  in.  The  ultimate  destiny  of  the 
world,  when  this  terrible  war  is  over  and  done  with, 
will  rest  upon  the  shoulders  of  those  thinkers  and 
economists,  and  upon  the  success  of  their  efforts  will 
depend  the  peace  and  happiness  of  our  children's 
children. 

I  know  that  here  I  am  laying  down  the  ethics  of 
Socialism,  but  not  the  Socialism  that  depends  upon 
labour  upheavals  in  which  the  worker  merely  seeks 
to  get  all  he  can  from  the  employer,  but  that  larger 
Socialism  whose  aim  is  the  good  of  the  community 

250 


AFTER  THE  WAR 

as  opposed  to  the  fortune  of  the  individual  in  the 
pursuit  of  the  general  well-being. 

I  see  all  over  the  world  evidences  that  this  spirit  is 
alive  and  prospering.  In  Switzerland,  for  instance, 
if  a  company  earns  more  than  a  certain  percentage 
upon  its  capital  the  surplus  goes  to  the  State  to  be 
used  in  the  public  interest — subsidise  education  and 
mitigate  such  poverty  as  there  may  be.  As  a  fact — ■ 
and  as  a  result — you  see  very  little  poverty  in  Swit- 
zerland. In  the  Scandinavian  countries,  too,  no 
man  may  become  absurdly  wealthy,  and  even  in  rich 
England  a  levelling-up  process  is  in  the  act  of  forma- 
tion by  means  of  taxes  upon  the  very  wealthy.  Soon 
I  am  hopeful  that  this  spirit  will  spread  among  our 
Governments;  it  is  the  way  to  universal  peace,  for 
unquestionably  money  and  the  acquisition  of  money 
lies  at  the  back  of  most  international  unrest. 

It  lies,  if  you  think  of  it,  behind  this  war.  What 
was  at  the  back  of  Germany's  dream  of  world-wide 
conquest?  Was  it  not  the  expansion  of  her  com- 
merce? Was  it  not  her  envy  of  other  nations' 
wealth  that  drove  her  to  seek  a  first  place  among  the 
nations?     She  wanted  to  extend  her  borders,  to  en- 

251 


COimX  LIFE  FROM  WITHIN 

large  luT  trade,  to  increase  her  wealth.  End  this 
amassing  of  private  fortunes  and  you  will  end  this 
constant  hghting  and  intriguing  for  power  and  posi- 
tion. America's  worship  of  the  almighty  dollar  in- 
fluences her  attitude  to-day. 

I  wonder  shall  we  ever  find  a  substitute  for  money 
which  will  reduce  its  value.  The  value  of  money  is 
the  curse  of  life;  it  leads  to  wars,  it  creates  half  the 
intrigues  in  Court  and  political  life,  it  provokes  sense- 
less luxury.  But  I  am  talking  of  a  Utopia,  and  we 
live  in  an  age  of  greed  and  personal  aggrandisement, 
however  sure  to  those  who  look  beneath  the  surface 
are  the  signs  of  coming  reform. 

One  good  thing  the  war  will  leave  in  its  train  is 
a  recurrence  of  simplicity.  It  cannot  but  be  that 
the  awful  costliness  of  it  all  will  reduce  the  means 
left  for  wastefulness  in  living.  I  wish  the  larger 
nations — and  especially  England  and  America — 
would  study  the  life  of  the  Scandinavian  towns  and 
see  how  much  preferable  is  their  simpler  life,  how 
much  happier  folk  are  when  there  is  not  this  greed 
for  gold,  which  takes  up  all  one's  time  and  makes 
men  forget  the  joy  and  the  meaning  of  life  while 
they  are  earning  and  cheating  and  hoarding.     There 

252 


AFTER  THE  WAR 

should  be  a  law  preventing  great  possessions.  I 
don't  mean  that  the  genius  in  his  business  or  profes- 
sion should  not  be  able  to  earn  enough  to  give  him 
greater  comforts  than  those  who  have  not  succeeded 
so  well  as  he — probably  because  they  have  not  tried 
so  hard.  To  give  the  industrious  and  the  indolent 
an  equal  reward,  to  be' sure,  would  set  a  premium  on 
laziness,  and  much  of  the  world's  work  would  go 
undone.  But  there  ought  to  be  a  limit  to  what  a 
man  can  own,  or  what  one  company  can  earn,  es- 
pecially when  there  are  so  many  quite  deserving  poor 
who  are  poor  not  because  of  indolence  but  through 
lack  of  opportunity. 

This  is  a  part  of  Socialism,  and  I  know  in  Eng- 
land Socialism  is  a  bad  word  to  use.  Socialism  is 
unfortunate  in  its  champions  in  England;  Socialism 
has  come  to  mean,  in  the  popular,  thoughtless  sense 
of  the  word,  strikes  and  demands  for  improved  wages 
and  conditions.  No  doubt  Socialism  would  so  revo- 
lutionise industry  that  the  present  wages  and  condi- 
tions would  then  seem  antiquated  to  the  point  of 
medisevalism,  but  I  think  your  wise  men  of  England 
are  those  who  carry  on  the  work  of  social  reforma- 
tion and  leave  the  word  Socialism  alone.     Mr.  Lloyd 

253 


COURT  LIFE  FROM  WITHIN 

George  has  the  right  idea;  I  call  him  a  Socialist, 
though  perhaps  he  wouldn't  agree  with  the  designa- 
tion. 

Will  the  new  era  which  follows  the  close  of  this 
European  holocaust  be  one  of  social  advancement? 
If  so,  the  war  will  not  have  been  in  vain.  And 
everything  points  that  way. 

In  a  second  way,  the  war  will  bring  improvement 
more  complete  than  a  generation  of  peace  could  ever 
have  done.  On  the  battlefields  of  France  the  Brit- 
ish aristocrat  and  the  boy  from  the  slums  will  have 
met  and  become  brothers.  Class  distinctions  will 
break  down  not  a  little,  and  this  is  a  good  thing,  for 
the  private  who  came  from  the  estates  whereon  his 
ancestors  have  lived  for  centuries,  and  the  soldier 
who  came  from  the  foundry  or  the  pit,  have  found 
each  other  of  the  same  flesh  and  blood,  comrades  in 
a  common  cause.  Hitherto  the  class  distinctions 
have  been  very  definite;  they  did  not  merge.  After 
the  war  those  barriers  will  become  far  more  shad- 
owy. 

Surely  also  if  there  are  no  more  gigantic  wars,  but 
a  vast  curtailment  of  armaments,  millions  and  mil- 
lions will  be  saved,  and  this  nionc}-,  after  settling  the 

254 


AFTER  THE  WAR 

war  bills,  will  be  available  for  setting  our  houses  in 
order. 

I  do  not  think  there  will  be  any  great  hardships 
and  poverty  when  the  war  is  over.  On  the  contrary 
I  anticipate  a  great  trade  revival,  and  in  this  respect 
the  understanding  between  the  present  Allies  will 
greatly  increase  the  business  done  by  them.  Ger- 
many will  no  doubt  be  crippled,  her  military  role 
will  end,  and  her  business  men — among  the  best  in 
the  world — will  find  many  of  the  old  works  closed. 
It  will  take  Germany  many  years  to  rebuild  her  for- 
tunes, for  she  will  have  made  her  one  gigantic  throw 
for  world  power,  and  lost. 

France  and  England  and  Russia  have  between 
them  most  of  the  necessities  of  life,  and  this  should 
tend  to  keep  down  the  cost  of  those  necessities.  But 
I  hope  that  a  revival  of  trade  will  not  mean  a  return 
to  riotous  living  and  deadening  indulgence. 

To  all  the  Allies  the  war  has  brought  individual 
unity  within  their  own  boundaries;  there  was  dan- 
ger of  internal  trouble  in  all  three  a  year  before  the 
cloud  burst.  Undoubtedly  the  fears  of  civil  war 
in  Great  Britain  had  some  foundation;  France  was 
in  a  certain  sense  in  a  condition  of  unpreparedness ; 

^55 


COURT  LIFE  FROM  WITHIN 

and  Russia  was  on  the  edge  of  a  revolution.  In  a 
day  these  questions  were  laid  aside.  To-day  the 
French  army  is  as  one  man;  France  has  behaved  with 
a  splendour  that  cannot  be  over-extolled,  and  she  will 
never  lose  that  power  of  cohesion  she  gained  through 
the  opening  stages  of  this  conflict.  Indeed,  in  all 
the  countries  of  the  Allies  I  fancy  the  old  questions 
will  never  recur  in  the  same  degree. 

On  the  whole,  then,  the  outlook  has  its  bright  side. 
We  are  appalled  at  the  loss  of  life,  at  the  desolation 
of  territor}',  at  the  complicated  wastage  of  war.  But 
the  Allies  will  come  out  of  it  stronger  in  many  ways, 
not  only  with  recovered  territory — France  with  her 
long-lost  children  returned,  and  Russia  no  doubt  with 
her  southern  port  (which  means  her  emancipation) 
— but  with  ancient  instincts  of  race  reawakened  and 
sharpened,  with  broader  views,  particularly  on  the 
part  of  France  and  Great  Britain;  for  this  war  has 
killed  the  distance  across  the  English  Channel,  and 
England,  losing  her  insularity,  will  become  more  and 
more  closely  attached  to  her  great  Republican 
neighbour. 


256 


INDEX 


INDEX 


Abdul  Hamid,  Sultan,  151,  152 
Absinthe,  sale  of,  prohibited  in 

France,  248 
Albert,    King    of    the    Belgians, 

183 
Alcazar,   the   palace  of   the,   35 
description   of,    36 
life   at,   37   et  seq. 
Alcohol,  the  War  and,  248 
Alexander  II.,  Tsar,   assassina- 
tion of,   176 
Alexandra,     Queen,     129,     131, 

175,    194,    205,    209 
Alexis,   Grand  Duke,   172 
Alfonso  XII.,   King,  2,  28 
a  family  reunion,  27 
a  love  match,  74 
a    visit    to    the    French    hos- 
pital,  60 
and   the    Spanish    aristocracy, 

93 
at  the  Escurial,  27-28 
buried  in  the  Escurial,  97 
death  of,  96,  97 
grief  at  death  of  his  wife,  90 

et  seq. 
his   activities,   93    et   seq. 
his  children,   96 
his  education,  46 
his   popularity,   52 
his    second    marriage,    95 
ill-health   of,    91 
marries      Mercedes,      daugh- 


ter   of    the   Due   de   Mont- 
pensier,   80 
proclaimed   King,   20,  48,  49, 

58 
the  Infanta  and,  5,  7,  18,  19, 
20,   21,   27,   34-5,   44-6,   64, 
66,  68,  81,  89,  90  et  seq. 
Alfonso   XIII.,   King,   birth   of, 

96,  104 
Amadeo  of  Savoy,  Prince,  49 
Amber,     a     Royal     search     for, 

211 
America,    a    democratic    crowd 
in,  235-6 
the  author  in,  222  et  seq. 
the  Press  of,  232,   235 
the  railways  in,   233 
Antoine   of   Orleans,   Archduke, 
68  et  seq.,  74,  99 
marries   the   Infanta   Eulalia, 

1 00 
separated  from  his  wife,  238- 

239 
Aosta,    the    Dowager    Duchess 

of,  218  et  seq. 
Aosta,    the   Duke   and    Duchess 

of,  217,  221 
Aranjuez,  the   palace  of,   100 
Arbitration,  democracy  and,  247 
Argyll,  Duchess  of,  130 
Armada,   dispatch   of  the,  28 
Atoche,  the  church  of,   104 
Austria  before  the  War,   181 


259 


INDEX 


Belgians,   Albert   Kiiip  of   tlic, 

183 
Belgium,  King  Leopold  of,   183 
Berlin,    Court    life    in,     134    ct 

set]. 
"Blood       Royal,"       prerogatives 

of,   3-4,    II,   31,   32   et  seq., 

62,   63,   84 
Boer  War,   the,    113,   136 
Bologna,  215 
Bonaparte,       Princess       Laetitia 

{^ec        Aosta,         Dowager 

Duchess) 
"Bossism"      in      America      and 

Spain,   55-6 
Bourbon,   Princess   Caroline   of, 

/75 
British   rule  in  India,  the,   iii 
Bulgaria,    King    Ferdinand    of, 

184-S 


Caciques   in   Spain,   56   et  seq. 

Calomarde,   Sefior,   50 

Campos,   General    Martinez,  48 

Canovas,   Senor,   85 

Cara  de  Dios,  la,  98 

Carlo,    Don,    and    the    Spanish 

succession,    49-51 
Caroline   of    Bourbon,    Princess, 

.   178 
Charles   III.,  43 
Charles  IV.,  224 
Chicago:  the  World's  Fair,  222 
Christian,     King    of     Denmark, 

205,  207 
Christiania,    autlior    at,    190    et 

seq. 
Cleveland,    President,    237 
Coburg,   Duchess  of,   130 


Connaught,    Princess    Margaret 
of,  204 
Princess   Patricia   of,    130 
the    Duchess   of,    130 
the  Duke  of,  129 
Constantinople,      the      Kaiser's 

visit   to,    151 
Court    diplomats,    87-9 

life,  anomalies  of,  105  et  seq. 
life   in   England,    110-12,   129 
Cuba,  222,  225  et  seq. 

Spanish    corruption    in,    229- 
30 

Democracy      and       arbitration, 
247 
and    monarchy,   244 
educ^.lion    and,    180 
in    Denmark,    205,    208 
in    England,    123,    132 
in  Norway,   190  et  seq. 
in  Russia,   160 
Denmark,     democracy     in,    205, 
208 
the   King  of,  205,  207 
Disarmament,    tiie    (juestion    of, 

246,   248-9 
Dmitri,   Grand    Duke,    175 

EciiEGARAY,  Jose  de,  73 
Edinburgh,      the      Duchess      of 

(now  Duchess  of  Coburg), 

131 
Education    and    democracy,    180 
Edward    VII.,    King,    112 

and      the      entente      cordiale, 

127 
and  the  Kaiser,  114,  134,  137, 

138 
entertains    the    Autlior,    129 


»6o 


INDEX 


his     American     and     Jewish 

friends,   132 
his  punctuality,   129 
Elizabeth,   Grand   Duchess,    174 
England    and    Germany,   indus- 
trial    and     commercial     ri- 
valry between,  114 
and  Socialism,  253 
and  the   English,   106   et  seq. 
author's  visits  to,   108 
and  the  question  of  disarma- 
ment,  248 
changing  customs   in,    120 
country  life  in,   116  et  seq. 
democracy   in,   123,   132 
her   international   affairs,   127 
love  of  extravagance  in,  115- 

16,   132,  247 
strikes  and  internal  disorders 

in,  113,  248 
taxing  the  wealthy  in,  251 
the    aristocracy   of,    no,    115, 

132 

the  charm  of  home  and  coun- 
try, 117 

the    landlord    system   in,    122 

the  veneration  of  Royalty  in, 
131 
English,   author's  views  of  the, 
114 

Court,  the,  a  canon  of  Court 
etiquette,   131 

character  of   the,   114,   125 

diplomats,   89 

Royal   Family,  the,    m 

the,    their    superiority    in    di- 
plomacy,  126 
Entente  cordiale,  the,   127 
Escurial,   palace   of   the,   26    et 
seq. 


Alfonso  XII.  buried  In,  97 

arrival  of  Royal  Family  at, 
28 

interment  of  Queen  Mercedes 
in,   90 

Royal   tombs  in,  28 
Eulalia,  the  Infanta,  a  guest  at 
Sandringham,    129 

a  separation  from  her  hus- 
band,   238-9 

Alfonso  XII.  and,  7,  18,  21, 
27,  35.  44-5,  64,  66,  68,  74, 
81,  90  et  seq. 

and    Court    etiquette,    31-2 

and  democracy,   179,  244 

and  Izzet  Pasha,   151 

and  Edward  VII.,  128  et  seq. 
Eulalia    and   the   death   of    Al- 
fonso XII.,  96  et  seq. 

and  the  English  Royal  circle, 
130  et  seq. 

and    the    language    of    eyes, 

65 
asserts  herself,  8,  26,  30,  40 
at  Rome,  182 
at   the   convent   of   the    Sacre 

Coeur,   9   et  seq.,  108 
at  the  Norwegian  Court,   193 

et  seq. 
at   the    Ordensfest   in   Berlin, 

138,   139,    140 
at  the  palace  of  the  Alcazar, 

36  et  seq. 
at   Richmond,    119-120 
death  of  her  mother,  239 
her  engagement,  69,  74,  99 
her   father,    17,    189 
her  First  Communion,  14 
her   growing  desire  for   soli- 
tude, 238 


261 


INDEX 


her  irksome  duties  as  a 
Princess,  22  et  scq.,  142  et 
seq. 

her   love  of  books,  46   d  seq. 

her  "mortal  sin"  and  con- 
fession  thereof,   70 

her  mother,  2,  4,  14,  18,  19, 
24,    25,   26,   27,    30,    31,    35, 

38,  45.   75 
her    sisters,    5,    6,    9,    lo,    14, 

IS.   25,    40,   41,   44,    52.    60, 

61,  68,  81 
her  sons,  ix,   189,  238 
in  America,  232  et  seq. 
in   Russia,    160   et  seq. 
marriage   of,    100 
Prince   Napoleon    a    playmate 

of,  4 
the   Kaiser   and,    134   ct   seq., 

140-41. 
the   King   of   Spain    and,   240 
visits      Queen      Victoria      at 

Windsor,    108-9. 

"Face  of  God,  the,"  98 
Ferdinand,    King    of    Bulgaria, 

183-4 
Ferdinand    VII.    of    Spain,    15, 

50 
Ferrari,    Philippo,    215 
France     and    the    Great    War, 
242-3 
and  the  question  of  disarma- 
ment, 248 
country    life    in,    119 
Louis    Philippe,    King    of,    72 
Royalty  in,   107 
Francisco,     Infante,     father     of 

Infanta    Eulalia,     17,     189 
Frederick,   Empress,   130 


Frederick     the     Great,     the     li- 
brary of,   153 
French,   the,   diplomacy   of,   127 

G.ALLIERA,    the    Duke    of,    213, 

215 
Genoa,   the   Duke   and   Duchess 

of,  217,  219 
George  V.,  King,  the  simplicity 

of  his  life,   132 
George,  Mr.  Lloyd,  253 
German      Emperor,      the      {see 
William    II.) 
Royal    Family,   the,   136 
Germany   and   the   Great  War, 
246,  255 
growth    of    Socialism    in,    137 
her     greed     for     power     and 

wealth,   251 
industrial      and      commercial 
rivalry   with   England,   114 
military   party  in,   155,   242 
Great    Britain    and    the    Great 

War,  243 
Great  War,  the,    115,   125,    132, 

133.   179,   184 
author's   reflections   on,   242 
good   results  of,   252   et  seq. 
the    Allies'    individual    unity, 

255 
Tsar  Nicholas  II.   and,   176 
Gustav,  King  of  Sweden,  204 

Haakon,      King     of     Norway, 

180,  192,  193  et  seq. 
Havana,   author  visits,  224 
convicts  as  servants  in,  227 
the    author's   curious   predica- 
ment in,  228 
Houlgate,    an    adventure   at,   7 


262 


INDEX 


Humbert,  King  of  Italy,  216, 
217 

India,  British  rule  in,  iii 
Infection,   immunity  of   Spanish 

to,   84    (f/.   Viaticum) 
Isabel   the   Infanta,   44,    53,   95, 

151 

marriage  of,  69 
Isabelle  II.   (mother  of  the  In- 
fanta Eulalia),  2,  4,  14,  17, 
19,   24,    25,   26,   27,   29,    31, 
35,   38,  42,  45,  239 

an  anecdote  of,  102 

attempted     assassination     of, 
46 

dethronement  of,   49 

intrigues  against  marriage  of 
Alfonso   XII.,   42,    71 

returns  to  Spain,  20,  22 

succeeds   to   the   throne,    50 
Isle  of  Wight,  130,  162,  174 
Italian     Court,     the,     and     the 
Vatican,      a      quarrel      be- 
tween,  95 
Italy  before  and  after  the  uni- 
fication, 216 

dialect  in,  219 

King  Humbert  of,  216,  217 

King    Victor     Emmanuel    of, 
49,    182 

miniature   Courts  in,  218 

Queen    Margherita    of,    216, 
217 

the  Courts  of,  213  et  seq. 
Izzet  Pasha,  151 

Kaiser,  the,  and  his  Court,  134 
et  seq.  {see  also  William 
XL,  Emperor) 


La  Granja,  the  summer  palace 

of,   86 
Las  Palmas,  the  author  at,  224 
Leopold,  King  of  Belgium,   183 
London,  the  author  in,   109 
Louis    XVI.    and   the    Court   of 

Versailles,    144 
Louis   Philippe,   King,   72,   184 
Louise,    Princess     {see    Argyll, 

Duchess  of) 
Luisa  Carlota,  the  Infanta,  50 
marriage   of,   69 


Madrid,  a  popular  feast  in,  98 
an    audience — and    a    kitten, 

60-1 
an   embarrassing  street  deco- 
ration, 43 
the  Royal  palace  of,  43 
Margaret,     Princess     of     Con- 
naught,   204 
Margherita,     Queen     of     Italy, 

216 
Maria    Cristlna     (wife    of    Al- 
fonso XII.),  95,   118,   151 
Maria  Cristlna,  Queen  (wife  of 
Ferdinand  VII.),   15,   51 
character  of,   17 
romantic  marriage  of,  16 
Maria  Padilla,  the  bath  of,  38 
Maria  Pavlovna,  Grand  Duch- 
ess,  175 
Marie,  Empress,  175,  206,  209 
Mary,  Queen  of  England,  120 

her  simple  life,  132 
Maud,   Queen  of   Norway,   180, 

190,  193  et  seq. 
Mercedes,  Queen,  80 
death  of,  90 


263 


INDEX 


Mohammedanism,     Spain     and, 

57 
Montagnini,   Monsipnor,   221 
Montpensier,    the    Due    de,    71, 
214 

a   unique  marriage,  75 

and  his  orange  crop,  93 

and  Isabella   II.,  71 

and  Queen  Victoria,  109 

appearance  of,   77 

death  of,  238 

head    of    the    Orleans    party, 

72-3 

his  religious  ideas,  76 

marriage  of,  72 
Moiiza,   the   Castle   of,   216 
Moors,  the,   57 
Morro   Castle,   224 

Napoleon  III.  and  Isabella  II., 

4 
Netherlands,   the,   war   in,   28 
Nicholas     II.,     Tsar,     and     his 
people,  157  et  seq. 
as  host,   169 

courage  of,  158,  176,  245 
happy   married    life   of,    166- 

167 
his  autocratic  power,   164 
his   children,    166 
his  great  tenderness,   177 
his    love    of    simplicity,    168, 

176 
his  personality',   158 
his  strenuous  days,  170 
Normandy,    the    Spanish    Court 

removes  to,    5 
Norway,  democracy  in,  180,  190 
education    in,    199 
free  unions    in,   198 


Queen   Maud  of,   190,  193 

the    King   of,    180,    192,    193 

Norway  and   Sweden,  union  of, 

repealed,   192,  200,  205 

Olaf,    Prince    of    Norway,    193, 

196,   197 
Ordensjest,  the,   138,    139,    140 
Orleans,  Antoine  d',  68  et  seq., 

74.  99 
Orleans  family  in   France,   104 

party,  the,  73 

the  House  of,   183,   184 
Oscar,  King  of  Sweden,  204-5 

Palais     de     Castile,     the     In- 
fanta's life  in,  4  et  seq. 

Paris,  flight  from:  the  Infanta's 
recollections  of,   5 
the  author   in,   107 

Paris,    Comte    de,    exiled    from 
France,   105 
the   Comte   and   Comtesse   de, 
at    Tunbridge    Wells,    105, 
116 

Patricia    of     Connaught,     Prin- 
cess, 130 

Paul,  Grand  Duke,  175 

Paz,  the  Infanta,  44,   53 

Pedro  the  Cruel,  39 

Peter  the  Great,  175 

Petersburg.     {See  Petrograd) 

Petrograd,    160,    166 

the    Twelfth    Day    ceremony 
at,   161,   163-4 

Philip  II.  and  the  Escurial,  28 

Pilar,  the  Infanta,  44,   53 
death  of,  91 

Polaiul,  the  tragedy  of,  179 

Polish  question,  the,  178 


264 


INDEX 


QUIRINAL,  the,  21 6 

Recruiting     in     England     and 

Germany,  136 
Richmond,  author's  visit  to,  119 
Romanoff,    the    House    of,    and 

democracy,  171 
Rome,   the   Infanta   Eulalia    at, 
14,  1 8a 
the  Pope  of,  182 
Russia  and  the  Great  War,  243 
and  the  Orthodox  Church,  164 
creation      of      the      Imperial 

Duma,  1 60,  165 
Empress  of,  her  beauty,  162 
her  devotion  to  her  children, 

167 
her  natural  timidity,  246 
her  religious  instincts,  164 
the   Blessing    of   the    Waters 

in,  161,  164-5 
the  Grand  Dukes  and  Grand 

Duchesses  of,  171  et  seq. 
the  peasantry  of,  178 
Tsar  Nicholas  II.,  157 
Russian  Court,  the,  a  charming 
custom  at,   169 
the     mazurka      a      favourite 
dance  at  the,  168 

Sacre  Cceur,  convent  of,  9,  108 
Sagasta,  Premier,  85 
St.  Lorenzo  martyrdom,  of,  28 
Salic  law  in  Spain,  the,  50 
San  Jean  de  Luz,  22 
Sandringham,    a    curious    prac- 
tice at,   129 
Sans-Souci,  the  palace  of,  153 
Santander,   86 
the  Cathedral  of,  25,  223 

265 


Savoy,      Prince      Amadeo      of, 

49 
Scandinavia,  Socialism  in,  251 

the  simple  life  of,  252 
Scandinavian    democracies,    the, 
190  et  seq. 
diplomats,    89 
Serge,   Grand  Duke,   assassina- 
tion of,  174 
Seville,  36  et  seq. 
Shakespeare,  the  Infanta  Eula- 

lie  and,  47 
Social  reform  versus  Socialism, 

253 
Socialism  in  Belgium,  183 
in  England,  353 
in  Germany,  136 
in  Italy,  182 
in  Sweden,  202 
the  ethics  of,  250  et  seq. 
Spain,      "anti-clerical"      revolts 
in,  57,  58 
becomes  a  republic,   i 
caciques  in,  56  et  seq. 
corruption  in,   55,  94 
influence  of  the  Due  de  Mont- 

pensier  in,  73 
intricacies  of  Government  in, 

55    et   seq. 
king-making   in,   48   et  seq. 
medical  science  in,  90-92 
priests  and  their  rule,  56 
religion  and  politics  in,  57 
Republicanism  in,  58 
taxation  in,  56 
the   aristocracy  of,   93 
the  Catholicism  of,  98 
the     church     and     courtship, 

66-7 
the  claque  in,  52-3 


INDEX 


the  Clerical  party  in,  73 

the  quebtioii  of  succession,  42 

the  Salic  law  in,  50 

the   Viaticum  in,  81   et  scq. 

tricks  of  deception  in,  54 
Spanish  Court,  the,  life  at,  85 

the  diplomats,  87  ct  seq. 
Strikes  and  Socialism,  113,  249 
Sweden,  King  Gustav  of,  204 

Kinp  Oscar  of,  204-5 

Socialism  in,  203 

the   aristocracy  of,  201 

the  Court  of,  204 

the  Crown  Prince  of,  203 

the    Crown    Princess   of,    130, 
204 

the   Parliament  of,  202 

the  Queen  of,  204 
Sweden   and   Norway,  union  of, 

repealed,  192,  2cx3,  205 
Switzerland,   true    Socialism   in, 
251 

Teck,  the  Duchess  of,  120 
Tunbridge    Wells,    the     Comte 

and   Comtesse   de   Paris   at, 

105,  116 
Turin,  the  Courts  of,   217 

Un'ITED     States,     "bossism"     in 

the,  55,  56 
Universal  peace,  the  ideal  way 

of  obtaining,  251 


Vatican',   the,    and   the   Infanta 
Kulalia,    182 
and  the  Italian  Court:  a  quar- 
rel, 95 


Venice,  220  et  seq. 

Versailles,   32 
of       Spain,       the.     {Sec      La 
Clranja) 

Viaticum,    the    author's    experi- 
ences of,  81  et  seq. 

\'ictor    Mmmanuel,    King,    49 

\'ictoria.  Queen,  and  a  problem 
of  Court  etiquette,  131 
description   of,    109 
jubilee  of,  112,  174 

Vienna,  the  Court  of,  95 

Vodka,  prohibition  of,  in  Russia, 
248 

Voltaire,  153 


Wales,  Albert  Edward,   Prince 
of,   at   the   wedding  of   Al- 
fonso XII.,   129 
Prince      (Edward)      of,      his 

birth,  120 
Princess      of       (now      Queen 
Mary),    birth    of    her    first 
son,  120 

Whisky,    the    evil    of    England, 
248 

Wight,   Isle  of,   130,   162,   174 

William   II.,   German   Emperor 
and  Edward  \'1I.,  114,  134, 

»37,  138^ 
and  the  divinity  of  kingship, 

135-6,   140,   154,    165,  243 
and  the  Great  War,  242-3 
as  host,  146-7 
at  the  Ordensfest,  138-140 
his  children,   145 
his  flattery  of  the  author,  141 
his  literary  tastes,  153 
his   love  of   Berlin,   147-8 


266 


INDEX 

his  personality,  134,  137  Windsor   Castle,   the  author   at, 

his  punctuality,  144  169 

his   religious   instincts,    135-6,  Woman,  the  equality  of,  in  Nor- 

242  way,  197  et  seq. 

the  household  of,  134-5  World's  Fair,  the,  222 
the     Infanta     Eulalia's     visit 

to,  134  Zamoyski   family,   the,    178 


267 


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UNIVERSITY  OF  C:ALII()RNIA 

Santa  Barbara 


THIS  BOOK    IS  DUE  ON   THE  LAST  DATE 
STAiMPED  BELOW. 


flerieii  9482 


^ 


^ 


AA       000  287  495    6 


